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Clinton Targets African-American Voters Who Already Support Her

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Polls show that Hillary Clinton has locked up one demographic in Pennsylvania: African-American voters. A Marist poll last month even showed Donald Trump getting zero percent of that vote.

And yet, Clinton's campaign continues intensive efforts to woo those voters.

Democrats have been accused of taking the black vote for granted. The Clinton campaign's director of political engagement, Marlon Marshall, is determined no one will believe that about Clinton:

Marlon Marshall
The Clinton campaign's director of political engagement, Marlon Marshall. (Credit: Pat Loeb)

"She has a history with the community but also (is) working to earn their support."

Marshall points to voter-registration drives, African-American leadership councils, partnerships with barber shops and churches. It is a more direct effort than most previous candidates, who tempered outreach, with an eye on also pleasing blue collar white democrats.

Though that's a constituency Clinton needs, Drexel University professor Bill Rosenberg notes it is a declining resource-- having gone from 83 percent of democrats to less than 60 percent in the last 35 years:

"She's making sure she's going to get as large a turnout as she possibly can among African Americans because they make up so much of the base of the Democratic Party."

He says it's important for her not to let enthusiasm wane with the departure of the first black president:

"She's got to mobilize them to make sure they turn out."

Marshall agrees, but prefers a more idealistic spin....

"Yes, we want to win the state of Pennsylvania, but what we also want to do is let folks know the vision she has for how she will fight for them as president of the United States."

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