Story County Supervisor Clinton Helps Court the African American Vote in Iowa

When Story County Supervisor Wayne Clinton moved to Iowa in 1966 he was the second African American teacher in the Ames community and was the first African American on his staff.

But much has changed since Clinton became a middle school teacher and coach.

In the last 20 years, Iowa’s African American population has increased by 100 percent and President Barack Obama's campaign hopes that Clinton, one of Iowa’s 89,000 African Americans, will help him win the state and the election.

Those 89,000 people could make the difference in a close election between Mitt Romney and Obama, Obama's campaign staff said. More than 95 percent of black voters chose Obama in 2008.

“We believe every community is important and believe the African American community in Iowa is crucial to our reelection efforts,” said Brad Anderson, Iowa State Director for the Obama Campaign.

Clinton was one of 35 people named to the African Americans for Obama Council last week. He said the distinction has been a tremendous honor and it has also given him the opportunity to collaborate with other leaders on improving the quality of life and impacting issues that African Americans face on a daily basis.

“It's been a very positive experience for me as an African American leader in my community,” Clinton said.

The council and presidential election could also give Clinton a campaign boost. He is currently running for re-election on the Democratic ticket. Clinton was first elected to the Story County Board of supervisors in 2000 and will face , who is running as an Independent.

Clinton said at the Story County Democrat watch party in January that he felt that Obama's fight for re-election could go down as the nastiest in history because Republicans in Congress were determined to make Obama a one-term president.

While Obama pressed for change, Clinton said, Congress seemed to focus on a lack of cooperation to ensure he wouldn't have a lot of success to point to in his bid for re-election.

But Clinton said he isn't surprised by the lack of respect for the president's office based on the personal attacks he's witnessed and the general lack of willingness to come together and do what's best for America.

“The office of the president should command a certain amount of respect. I think that, that has eroded irregardless of who that person is,” Clinton said.