NFL Legend Lawrence Taylor Endorses Trump for President

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Wildwood, N.J., on May 11, 2024. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Former NFL linebacker Lawrence Taylor on Saturday endorsed President Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential race.

“I just wanted to say, I grew up a Democrat and I’ve always been a Democrat until I met this man right here,” Mr. Taylor said during a May 11 Trump rally in Wildwood, New Jersey. “Nobody in my family [will] ever vote for a Democrat again.”

President Trump welcomed Mr. Taylor to the podium, followed by former NFL running back Ottis Anderson. “Don’t you just love that guy? I tell you, it has been a very exciting day. You guys, not one person left here. You’re still here yelling and screaming,” Mr. Anderson told Trump supporters.

Mr. Anderson did not announce an explicit endorsement for President Trump.

Radio host Carl Jackson said in a post on social media platform X that he doesn’t think President Trump or any other Republican “will win 30 percent of the black vote in Nov.”

“HOWEVER, testimonies like this one from NFL great Lawrence Taylor, lead me to believe Trump will overperform w/blacks in Nov & Biden will underperform. That’s enough to scare the [expletive] out of dems.”

Some people criticized President Trump for featuring Mr. Taylor at his rally, noting that he is a registered sex offender.

It isn’t the first time that an NFL player has endorsed President Trump. During the 2020 race, former NFL star Jack Brewer announced his backing for the former president, citing the positive things he has done for the black community.

“As a lifelong Democrat, I ran the NFL players for Obama for years. And I always wanted policies that helped and served the Black community. I’ve worked tirelessly all my life to go into the inner cities and work on programming to address fatherhood issues and fatherlessness. And this president has truly, truly empowered me,” Mr. Brewer said at the time.

“Seeing him go into the communities and pass all these policies that are creating jobs for our people, bringing our fathers out of prison, and going into our communities like with the opportunity zones has really been amazing. I can’t tell you how just motivated I am to continue to work and press forward to help empower underserved Black communities across this country.”

Under the Trump administration, the rate of black unemployment fell from 7.5 percent in January 2017 to a low of 5.3 percent in Sept. 2019. The unemployment rate then shot up to 16.9 percent by April 2020 in the chaos of the COVID-19 outbreak.

By the time President Trump left the White House in January 2021, the rate dropped to 9.3 percent. Under the Biden presidency, the black unemployment rate hit a low of 4.8 percent in April 2023 and is currently at 5.6 percent as of April.

The Fight for Black Votes

Mr. Taylor’s endorsement comes amid polls showing that Democrats are losing the support of black voters, who have been a mainstay of the party.

A Feb. 7 report by Gallup noted that the “Democratic Party’s wide lead over Republicans in Black Americans’ party preferences has shrunk by nearly 20 points over the past three years.”

“Although Democrats continue to hold a formidable advantage over Republicans among non-Hispanic Black adults in the U.S., their current 47-point lead is the smallest Gallup has recorded in its polling, dating back to 1999. Most of the decline has been recent, with the net-Democratic ID for this group falling 19 points from a 66-point advantage in 2020,” according to Gallup.

“At that time, 77 percent of black adults favored the Democrats and 11 percent the Republicans, so the 2023 findings represent an 11-point decrease in Democrat affiliation since 2020 and an eight-point increase in Republican affiliation.”

However, a May 6 Ipsos survey of black Americans found that the majority of the black community continued to back President Biden, who was found to have an edge over President Trump when it came to personal favorability, job performance, and personal attributes.

“When asked who they would be likely to vote for, 42 percent of Black Americans say they will definitely vote for Joe Biden compared to 4 percent for Donald Trump or 1 percent for Robert Kennedy Jr.,” Ipsos said.

“On issues of the economy, crime, abortion, racism, or the war between Israel and Hamas, Black Americans trust Biden at least 3 to 1 over Trump,” according to Ipsos.

During an event last month, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), said that President Biden’s backing among the black community remained unshakeable.

“I go to an African American barbershop. I go to an African American Church. Joe Biden is as strong with African Americans as he has ever been,” he said.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Matthew Wilson, a professor at Southern Methodist University, confirmed that black voters were diversifying their election choices.

There is a “real movement and more diversity in the electoral outcomes in [predominantly black and Hispanic precincts] than had been true in the past,” he said. “So I think Democrats who are inclined to write it off as artificial are engaged in wishful thinking, because it shows up in multiple different indicators.”

Charlie Kolean of the R.E.D. political action said minorities were losing “trust” in the Biden administration due to economic reasons. “Minorities see that big government is no longer helping them but hurting them.”

Whitley Yates, diversity engagement director for the Indiana Republican Party, noted that the black community has usually been “lied to consistently.”

“They have been promised things every election cycle and have been used by the Democratic Party to remain in positions of power without any type of progress for those communities.”

“The way this economy has impacted the black community has been catastrophic. Inflation and the consumer price index have gone up astronomically, which has hurt businesses ... People began to realize that it was a lot of smoke and mirrors.”