How Trump and Harris Plan to Win Black Voters

By Jeff Charles

Election Day is fast approaching, and polling shows former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in a statistical dead heat, indicating that this will be a close election.

Over the past few months, much focus has been on Black voters – particularly Black men. Harris’s numbers among Black voters have been lower than most other Democratic candidates, while Trump appears to have increased his support among this voting bloc, according to recent polling.

These numbers have led both candidates to appeal to the Black community. Both candidates have taken remarkably different approaches to winning over African American voters, and it won’t be long before we find out which strategy is the most effective.

The Fight For Black Voters

Harris’s polling with the Black electorate should be a cause for alarm for Democrats, who have historically relied on securing about 90 percent of this demographic’s votes. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed that about 78 percent of Black voters said they planned to vote for Harris.

By way of comparison, President Joe Biden won about 90 percent of the Black vote in the 2020 election. The race between both candidates in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin means that losing this level of support from the Black community could be fatal to Harris’s chances of becoming president, a reality her campaign seems to understand given that it has made an effort to convince Black Americans to give Democrats another chance.

However, some of the tactics Democrats are employing might be counterproductive. Much of their messaging to Black Americans has involved trying to shame them into supporting Harris rather than speaking to their concerns.

Democratic Outreach

One example is an ad circulating on social media that emulates a YouTube dating show called “Pop the Balloon or Find Love.” The ad features a Black man who appears to have the qualities the women on the show would be looking for in a mate, but upon finding out he does not plan on voting, each of the women pops their balloons, rejecting him. The message is clear: If you don’t vote (for Democrats) your love life will suffer, Black man.

In another effort to shame Black voters into supporting Harris, Democrats trotted out former President Barack Obama, who lectured Black men about why they should support the vice president. He suggested that many African Americans who oppose Harris are doing so because they do not want a woman as president. His pitch was, 

Because part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.

However, the shame and blame strategy hasn’t been the only method Team Harris uses to attract Black voters. At some point, they decided to finally get into a policy discussion by unveiling Harris’s plan for Black males, the demographic where the vice president is seeing her biggest drop in support.

The plan lists a series of promises to improve conditions for Black men. These include offering forgivable loans to support entrepreneurship, “Providing 1 million loans that are fully forgivable of up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs and others who have historically faced barriers to starting a new business or growing an existing business.”

The vice president aims to establish regulations to guard investments in cryptocurrency “so that Black men and others who participate in this market are protected.”

Harris also promises to limit the use of criminal records in hiring decisions. Her plan will “Require businesses to limit the use of unnecessary criminal arrest histories, convictions, and credit scores in their employment decisions.”

The vice president will also “Launch a National Health Equity Initiative for Black Men…expand preventative screening programs, including prostate and colon cancer screenings.”

Harris also promises to legalize marijuana and create opportunities within the cannabis industry for Black men.

To address the problem of police brutality in Black communities, Harris vowed to “Build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve through the common sense police reforms in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”

Republican Efforts

Trump has also courted Black voters, and it appears to be paying off. The New York Times/Siena College poll showed that 15 percent of Black Americans plan to support the former president at the ballot box. If these numbers hold, it would represent a six-point increase from 2020. It would mean that Trump would get more Black support than any Republican presidential candidate since Gerald Ford.

In June, Trump showed up in Detroit, Michigan, to speak directly to African Americans about the economy, immigration, criminal justice, and other issues.

During his speech, Trump slammed President Biden for supporting the 1994 crime bill, which has been criticized for contributing to the problem of mass incarceration. However, he focused more on protecting public safety – especially in Black communities. Trump said,

Crime is most rampant right here and in African American communities. And more people see me, and they say, ‘Sir, we want protection, we want police to protect us. We don’t want to get robbed and mugged and beat up or killed because we want to walk across the street to buy a loaf of bread.

Rep. John James, who accompanied the former president, brought up economic issues and the lack of representation of Blacks in the government. He pointed out that while Democrats want Black voters to support them, they don’t run Black candidates in the State of Michigan.  

You look at who’s been left behind economically…how are we feeling out in the neighborhoods? When you look at who controls the major levers of power for Detroiters…President? White. Governor? White. Mayor? White. Senators? White.

Trump also addressed foreign spending versus focusing on domestic issues. “We’re giving billions of dollars overseas. And we have people that have great needs here in these United States, right here in Detroit, right here in Michigan,” he said.

Trump has repeated this messaging for Black voters, as well as others, a marked departure from previous Republican presidential candidates who largely ignored this demographic. Susie Wiles, a member of Trump’s campaign team, famously described the former president’s outreach to nonwhite voters as the “Jamal and Enrique” strategy.

For every Karen we lose, we’re going to win a Jamal and an Enrique,

she said, noting that while Trump might lose some white female voters, he will gain with minority men. Trump has also vowed to cut regulations to support minority-owned businesses while driving down unemployment.

A Decisive Moment

While both candidates have focused on policy to appeal to Black Americans, Trump’s campaign has done this far more than Kamala Harris. Democrats’ primary strategy appears to be aimed at using the historical connection between Blacks and the Democratic Party, guilting African Americans into voting the same they have in decades past.

However, it appears this messaging has not been as effective as Democrats had hoped – especially among younger Black Americans who do not have the same ties to the party as their parents and grandparents. It is as if the Democratic Party has realized far too late that it must work to win the votes of younger generations of African Americans after years of taking them for granted.

On the other hand, Trump has increased his Black support simply by asking for their votes and explaining what he will do to improve their lives. Unlike his Republican predecessors, he has made a concerted effort to deliver his message directly to Black voters, favoring face-to-face interactions rather than sound bites on media outlets. Current polling shows that, if this trend continues, Harris might be in trouble on Election Day.

The most important question for Black voters is: How much will the outcome of this election matter? Regardless of who wins, will conditions improve significantly for African Americans, or will it be more of the same?

Neither party has shown much interest in helping the Black community. Democrats pander and take them for granted while enjoying their loyalty. Republicans, except for Donald Trump, largely ignore Black voters, refusing to show up to court them.

But even if Trump wins, he can only do so much as president. Democrats still govern areas of the country with high Black populations and have a stranglehold on the local political scene. Most of the problems Black people experience are a result of government at the local and state levels. With Democrats in charge, there won’t be much, if any, improvement. Perhaps younger generations will one day understand this reality and work to change it.