Despite grim predictions for Democrats this fall, U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn told a Qcity audience Tuesday that he is not overly concerned.

Speaking at a fundraiser at the Harvey B. Gantt Center to kick off the re-election campaign for N.C. Senator Malcolm Graham, Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress, said Democrats this fall will make a forceful case for retaining their majority.

But first, he quipped, Democrats must wait for the summer heat to abate.

“We’re going to remind people of what we did,” he said. “There’s no need to talk to them now. It’s too hot. They ain’t going to remember anything. But we’re going to be out there in September and October, and we’re going to connect with these people, and we’re going to let them know what the alternatives were, and we’re going to draw the contrasts between us and (Republicans).”

With unemployment high and the U.S. economy still struggling, some pollsters are predicting that Democrats will lose their majority in the U.S. Senate, and possibly the House as well.

Clyburn, who represents South Carolina's only majority-black district, said he believes those predictions are extreme.

Among the Democrats’ accomplishments, Clyburn listed health care reform, more money for college Pell Grants and $1.6 billion for historically black colleges and universities.

“We gave HBCUs the largest increase in federal funding in the history of the country,” he said to applause. “We are going to remind people that no longer are you going to be subjected to denials of healthcare because of a pre-existing condition. No longer are you going to have your health care rescinded because you contract some catastrophic illness.”

Clyburn said he is scheduled to take that message to 20 or more congressional districts before the mid-term elections.

“I do believe that Democratic voters are going to be engaged in the campaign,” he said, “because they know full well what the alternatives are.”

Echoing that theme, U.S. Rep. Mel Watt told the crowd that while President Obama continues to enjoy 90 percent or better approval ratings among African Americans, that support must trickle down to state and congressional races.

He said Obama’s “progressive agenda” would be stymied if Democrats lose their majority. He also reminded the crowd that the 2010 Census means that state lawmakers elected this fall will get to draw new congressional boundaries.

“We are all tied into this thing together,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury this time in the mid-term election of sitting back and waiting until 2012.”

Watt said Democrats also must do a better job articulating what he has described as economic gains made under the Obama administration.

“At a point in time in September and October, we’ve got a major, major job to do,” he said, “and that’s to motivate our base and get them reinvigorated.”
 

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