Mayor Pete Buttigieg just got a huge boost from a poll that is placing him in the lead in Iowa, the first and very important state in primary voting.

But he’s had an issue gaining support from black voters.

And his campaign appears to have just made a huge blunder in their effort to suggest that they do in fact have black voter support.

Yesterday Pete Buttigieg put out a list of 400 Black South Carolinians that endorse him/his plan.

-A lot of the people are confused because they didn’t endorse.

-42 percent of the list is white.

-They used stock photos from Kenya.

Yet we have heard nothing from his campaign.

— Rachel R. Gonzalez (@RachelRGonzalez) November 16, 2019

https://t.co/b3b3bnqmTr

— Rachel R. Gonzalez (@RachelRGonzalez) November 16, 2019

So in addition to using stock photos from Kenya, they listed people as endorsing the plan who hadn’t actually endorsed it.

Here’s what the the campaign promoted, with a big banner “Pete Buttigieg 2020”, linking what the HBCU Times said about the ‘endorsement’:

More Than 400 South Carolinians Endorse Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s Douglass Plan for Black America

by Columbia City Councilwoman Tameika Devine, Rehoboth Baptist Pastor and State Rep. Ivory Thigpen, and more than 400 Douglass Plan endorsers

There are a number of questions voters may ask themselves before stepping into the ballot box. “Did I read enough about the candidates?” “Do their policies align with mine?” “Is there a place nearby where I can grab that second cup of coffee?” But most often it is — “whose presidency is going to make my life better?”

There is one presidential candidate who has proven to have intentional policies designed to make a difference in the Black experience, and that’s Pete Buttigieg. We are over 400 South Carolinians, including business owners, pastors, community leaders, and students. Together, we endorse his Douglass Plan for Black America, the most comprehensive roadmap for tackling systemic racism offered by a 2020 presidential candidate.

When cornered, the campaign explained that they had given the people the opportunity to “opt out” of the endorsement by email. Yikes.

Pete Buttigieg’s campaign sent out an email telling people they needed to opt-out of being on the endorsement list.

This is not how is works. pic.twitter.com/s4SruVCXiE

— Rachel R. Gonzalez (@RachelRGonzalez) November 16, 2019

Needless to say that didn’t make some happy.

From Slate:

Here’s what state Rep. Ivory Thigpen said:

Even though I had had conversations with the [Buttigieg] campaign, it was clear to me, or at least I thought I made it clear to them, that I was a strong Bernie Sanders supporter—actually co-chair of the state, and I was not seeking to endorse their candidate or the plan. But what I had talked about was potentially giving them a quote of support in continuing the conversation, because I do think it’s a very important conversation.

And Johnnie Cordero:

“I never endorsed that plan. I don’t know how my name got on there. No, that’s not true: I know how my name got on there,” Cordero began, before explaining that Buttigieg had emailed him the plan and asked for feedback, which began a conversation with Buttigieg’s staff.

“I had some difficulties with it,” Cordero said. … “The long and the short of it was they never sufficiently answered my questions, so I never actually endorsed the plan.”

And as Slate notes, when they looked into it, they discovered that about half the people, 184 people, were white.

The campaign put out a statement which said in part:

In the HBCU Times op-ed and in communications with the press, we’ve been clear that not every supporter of the plan is Black, and have never claimed otherwise in any public communication. We never gave the impression publicly that these people were endorsing Pete, only that they supported the plan. After they indicated their support, we reached out to people multiple times giving them the opportunity to review the language of the op-ed and the option to opt-out. We did hear from people who weren’t comfortable being listed and we removed them.

Pete will continue to talk about the Douglass Plan wherever he goes, regardless of the audience, as there are many communities of Americans committed to eradicating racial inequity.

That’s a pretty pitiful response to misusing and deceiving people. Notice no apology to the people they included as “endorsers” who were not.

HT: Twitchy