President Barack Obama's endorsement of
gay marriage could chip away at his overwhelming support among
African-Americans, Bishop Harry Jackson has said.
Jackson, a minister at the Hope
Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland, came to prominence fighting
against the District of Columbia's gay marriage law and a similar law
approved earlier this year in Maryland.
Appearing Friday on Fox News' The
O'Reilly Factor, Jackson told guest host Juan Williams that
George W. Bush won reelection in 2004, when marriage was an issue,
because of a slight uptick in black support for Republicans in Ohio
and Florida. He said presumed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney
could reach blacks with the issue.
“Twenty percent of blacks will not
vote for Obama” because of his stance on marriage, Jackson said.
The Rev. Conrad Tillard, senior
minister of Nazarene Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York,
disagreed, saying black voters have never been single-issue voters.
“It comes down to a choice, we know
what the fat cats from Bain and Wall Street have as an agenda for
America. At the end of the day, we have a choice between the
Democrats, who tend to consider all votes, particularly those stuck
at the bottom,” Tillard said.
(Watch
the entire segment at Mediaite.com)