He also did pretty well with the Black vote (almost 20%); because

1) he’s friendly/respectful/cooperative with Black D officials both above (the Pres) and below (mayor of Newark) his own station. He treats them as their position, works with them on where their interests/needs/views coincide instead of a narrow focus on the stuff they disagree about; he doesn’t act like he has to hold his nose to be in the same room with them.

2) he hasn’t done any of the voter suppression crap that so many R govs are pushing.

Black voters really aren’t looking for special handouts — they just want candidates to speak to them and about them as if they really believe Black Americans are just as American as the rest of us (30% of black voters are conservative; they really would go R if the R’s weren’t so vigorously offensive to Blacks to pander to racists.)