CHELSEA — With Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, party members are once again convinced that black voters – especially black male voters who are dissatisfied with President Joe Biden – will be more likely to support the candidates in the November election.
Biden lost support among black voters during his tenure as the top candidate as the public grew angry over the economy, inflation and the president’s increasingly weak public performances. Growing dissatisfaction with Biden helped former President Donald Trump to higher poll numbers among black voters.
But after Harris, the country’s first black and South Asian vice president, succeeded Biden, Democrats are cautiously hopeful that enthusiasm over her campaign will lure black voters back to the party and prevent Trump from poaching black male voters.
“As the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and as a black man, of course I have never believed the narrative that black men are not engaged,” said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV). “We have a position: 87% of black men vote and vote regularly. Over 92% of black women vote and vote regularly. So I just never believed that narrative. Some voters, regardless of race, choose to vote Republican. That is their prerogative, and Donald Trump has no idea.”
Black women and Black men started Zoom calls for Harris within hours or days of Biden ending his campaign on July 21, raising millions of dollars in support of the vice president. This week, Black Men Vote PAC announced a $4 million investment to reach Black men in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the swing states Harris must win to become president.
Harris’ black fraternity Alpha Kappa Alpha launched its first Super PAC last week, while the Divine Nine, a coalition of black Greek organizations, is mobilizing a massive voter turnout campaign to increase black voter turnout.
Delegate from Florida, Nikki Barnes, told the Washington Examiner that the party saw a huge increase in volunteers after Biden left office. “We saw volunteers come forward in Florida: 7,000 in four days, 10,000 over the weekend. I think we have 27,000 volunteers come forward in Florida,” Barnes said. “Many of them are black men. Many of them see their mothers, their sisters, their wives, their cousins and Kamala and they understand that when you put a black woman in charge, things get done, they get done. So yes, the enthusiasm is there.”
That enthusiasm has translated into a polling advantage. A recent poll by Suffolk University and USA Today found Harris comfortably ahead of Trump among black voters in Michigan, 70 percent to 9 percent, and among black voters in Pennsylvania, 70 percent to 11 percent.
In July, nearly 70 percent of black voters supported Harris over Trump in a hypothetical vote, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. That’s up from the 59 percent who supported Biden in polls in May and June. But in a troubling sign for Democrats, Trump polled 12 percent among black voters in July, compared to 9 percent in May and June.
Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), who sat with Harris in the Senate, claimed that the vice president had already closed the gap with black men.
“I mean, when I look at the numbers, everything changed dramatically once she got into the race. So it’s already happened,” he said. “Look, this is ultimately a campaign and an energy and excitement and enthusiasm that doesn’t come from popularity. It comes from this deep yearning that I see in America to start a new chapter.”
Representative Sanford Bishop (D-GA) echoed Booker’s comments in an interview with Washington Examiner. “What she’s done, especially in the last five weeks, has changed the minds of a lot of those people,” Bishop said. “There were African-American men who for some strange reason were leaning toward Trump who are now saying, ‘Well, maybe I’ll take another look,’ because she’s shown the energy and dynamism that I guess they didn’t feel with President Biden.”
Trump’s campaign and surrogates remain adamant that they can still win enough black male voters to deny Harris the White House. “I did very well with black voters and I’m still doing well. I seem to be doing very well with black men. That’s what the polls show,” Trump boasted at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month.
Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a key Trump surrogate who is trying to convince more black men to oppose the Democratic Party, sharply criticized Harris’ campaign on Tuesday during a Republican press conference in Chicago. “You can’t put food on the table with joy and good cheer,” Donalds told reporters during his speech at the Trump Hotel Chicago.
“You could be happy and hungry at the same time,” he warned of Harris’ economic policy proposals.
Donalds, along with Republican Congressman Wesley Hunt (Texas), another leading black Republican, hosted a series of events in major cities in swing states called “Congress, Cognac and Cigars” aimed at black men.
The prospect of Harris breaking the glass ceiling has ignited new energy among black women, who previously had concerns that Harris could be passed over given her high unpopularity ratings and other ambitious Democrats like Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) eager to become Biden’s designated successor.
“When the conversation started, I was afraid that people would try to push the vice president aside and deny her the big moment,” said Selvena Brooks-Powers, a New York City Council member from Queens, New York.
Harris, however, was able to quickly unite the party around her presidential campaign, preventing any other prominent Democrat from challenging her campaign. Part of that consolidation came from the 44,000 Black women who launched the first Zoom fundraising call for the vice president. “I was on the call. The first 44,000 Black women. It was an incredible feeling,” Brooks-Powers said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Adrienne Adams, also speaker of the New York City Council, beamed with enthusiasm about her first Democratic Party Convention and what it means for women and women of color.
“This is probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Adams said. “I’m thrilled to be here as a delegate from New York, as the first black speaker of the New York City Council, leading the first female-majority City Council in the history of the City of New York.”
Adams claimed that “black America needed that spark” by replacing Biden, who remains popular in the party. “But now that Vice President Kamala Harris is on board as our nominee, the sky’s the limit as far as the black vote goes, nothing can stop us now,” she said.
