Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s campaign has been accused of lying about the support Buttigieg has from black voters in South Carolina after it published a list that did not pass close scrutiny.

Buttigieg has been struggling with black voters. Even as his support has risen slightly among whites, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor has not added much black support.

But recently, Buttigieg has been pushing information that he claims proves that his support among blacks has risen. He has been pushing a campaign he is calling, “The Douglass Plan: A Comprehensive Investment in the Empowerment of Black America.”

With the campaign, Buttigieg also published a list of black supporters he says he now has in South Carolina. But the list has been called a sham.

Buttigieg sent a press release to a publication that caters to historically black colleges claiming three high-profile black leaders and hundreds of black supporters.

Detractors of Buttigieg’s press release, though, say that up to 40 percent of the list of hundreds of supporters are actually white people, not blacks. Worse, many don’t even live in South Carolina even as the campaign claimed the list was only of South Carolinians.

The three big black leaders on Buttigieg’s list were City Councilwoman Tameika Devine, state Rep. Ivory Thigpen, and state Democratic Black Caucus Chairman Johnnie Cordero. However, now all three say they never told the Buttigieg campaign that they are with him.

For instance, Devine said he does like Buttigieg’s “Douglass plan,” he never told the campaign he is endorsing Mayor Pete.

Thigpen was also a bit surprised to be listed as a Buttigieg voter because he has already endorsed Bernie Sanders.

Finally, Cordero said he doesn’t support Buttigieg or his “Douglas plan.”

By some counts, 184 of the names of the “supporters” on the list identify as white on voter registrations, and 135 other “voters” couldn’t even be verified.

Then there was another big problem with the graphics Buttigieg’s campaign used to push out the info. It runs out that the photos the campaign used were of people and scenes in Kenya, not South Carolina.

On top of everything else, the Buttigieg campaign used a stock photo from Kenya to promote its Frederick Douglass Plan for Black America https://t.co/OqnGSIqCLS pic.twitter.com/qBqei71TdA

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 15, 2019

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