Vice President Harris and her allies are making one last pitch to Black male voters in key swing states. They want to win back the support of a group of voters who have been skeptical of the Democratic candidate.
In the past week, Harris has been promoting her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men.” She has also been on the radio with Charlamagne tha God and gone to barbershops across the country to talk to Black men.
According to polls, the work is paying off for her.
The Alliance for Black Equality, a super PAC that gets Black people to vote in swing states, found that Harris’s support among Black guys in Generation Z has grown by 10 points since the beginning of October.
“I do believe that we will vote in this election.” Khalil Thompson, founder of Win With Black Men, told The Hill, “I do think we’re going to take part.”
Thompson also said that Black guys will connect with Harris’s focus on abortion rights.
A September poll by 19th News and SurveyMonkey found that 71% of Black men think abortion should be allowed in most or all situations. Almost half of those people also think that politicians should work to protect birth control, fertility treatments, and emergency contraception.
In July, when Harris launched her campaign, more than 53,000 Black men took part in a virtual event put on by Win With Black Men. In just four hours, they raised $1.3 million.
But Harris’s support in that group has dropped since then.
In an October study by GenForward at the University of Chicago, 26% of Black men between the ages of 18 and 40 said they would vote for Trump, but only 12% of Black women said the same.
Former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D) told The Hill that one reason Black men are moving toward the GOP is that they don’t feel heard.
“The rest of the year is radio silence,” Barnes said. People pay attention to them before an election.
Barnes claimed that this lack of participation will keep Black men from voting at all, no matter which party they support.
He also said that some people might like Trump because he doesn’t have much government experience.
Barnes said, “Because Donald Trump is so different from the norm, even in his party—the party he made in his image—some people will be drawn to it or at least be curious about it because it’s so different.”
Harris has mostly ignored polls that show she has a hard time with Black guys. Last week, she told “The Breakfast Club” that what she hears on the ground is very different.
She said, “The brothers aren’t saying that.” “I was just talking to some amazing and well-known men in Philadelphia at a barbershop. They are leaders in their community in small business and education.” Plus, these Black guys were telling me how much they supported me and, more importantly, how much they supported my ideas about what we can do to help the community and reach people’s goals and dreams.
Jones, founder and head of the National Black Empowerment Council, said that Harris should still be seen as a success even if she lost 20% of the support of Black men voters but still won 80% of the vote.
According to Jones, “There isn’t a politician in the world who, if they had the chance to get 80% of any group, wouldn’t see that as an overwhelming victory.” “So the fact that eight out of ten Black men voted the same way African American women did seems to me to show a lot of community support for these issues.” The idea that there is a divide is so exaggerated that it makes me wonder what the real reason is for pushing that talking point.
Jones also said that the idea that Black men won’t vote for Harris makes Black men and women fight over nothing.
Thompson thinks that a huge number of Black men will vote for Harris. This is partly because of the unfair pressure that has been put on them since Harris’s campaign began.
Thompson said, “I find it funny that Black voters built this country for free, and now we want them to come out and save us again.” “I don’t think we should have to carry all of this on our shoulders to save America.”
Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist, said Black guys won’t let Harris down.
Some things that have always been true about Black men are that they try their best not to let down the Black family unit, especially their moms and other women in their lives. That, I think, will be tomorrow night’s story: “We did not let our sister down.”
Source: Black leaders voice confidence Black men will show up for Harris
