Black male voters are bucking expectations and trending Republican in a year where the Democratic Party became the first ever to nominate a woman of color for president.
The rightward shift among this crucial voting bloc has been building for nearly two decades. But with Vice President Kamala Harris on the ballot, many expected that to change this year.
Recent polls show otherwise.
While 63 percent of black voters espouse support for Harris, black men and younger black voters are most likely to be undecided or supporters of former President Donald Trump, per a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) survey.
The survey shows that less than half (49 percent) of black men under 50 plan to vote for Harris. Twenty-six percent of that same demographic favor Trump.
Historically, black voters have shown strong support for the Democratic Party. That support has steadily declined among black men since former President Barack Obama received 95 percent of the black male vote in 2008.
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At a Harris campaign event held earlier this month in Pittsburgh, Obama scolded black men for not rallying behind the vice president.
“We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running. That seems to be more pronounced with the brothers,” Obama said.
He suggested the reason behind the lack of enthusiasm was that black men “just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
But Joe Lou, a black Trump supporter from Atlanta, shared a different reason for his decision.
“It’s all about the economy,” Lou told The Epoch Times. “People don’t agree with focusing on transgender and migrants.”
Lou, a 68-year-old Uber driver, said many in his community are planning to vote for Trump, attributing that support to their entrepreneurial nature.
“We don’t want to be taxed to death just because we worked hard and made it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jaleel Anderson, an undecided black voter from Birmingham, Michigan, said he is seeing more undecided and open-minded voters in his community than in previous years.
“They are open to hearing what the other side has to say,” he said.
Education and the economy are Anderson’s top concerns heading into this election. While he has yet to decide who will get his vote, he said he tends to lean conservative due to his Christian faith.
“I think this election, you’re probably not going to have a lot of black folks leaning left, and if not this election, the next one, for sure,” Anderson said. “You might see more of a polarizing shift in terms of political alignment within the African American community.”
—Samantha Flom, Emel Akan, Lawrence Wilson, and Stacy Robinson
ECONOMY IS TOP ISSUE FOR EARLY NORTH CAROLINA VOTERS
Voters in battleground North Carolina identified the economy as their top concern as the state’s first day of early voting got underway on Oct. 17.
“As a business owner, I need the economy to get back to where [it was],” Lauren Williams of Kannapolis told The Epoch Times.
Williams, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, said she rejects the idea that post-pandemic job numbers or the recent decline in gas prices reflect a prosperous reality for Americans under President Joe Biden.
“Just go out for a day and get gas, buy groceries, and try to go get a Big Mac, and see where you’re at,” she said.
Bo Bollinger, a newly retired regional service manager for a scientific company, put it more bluntly.
“The economy is crap,” he said. He cast his ballot for Trump.
The economy has been a key selling point for Trump as he makes his case for a second presidential term. Democrat Kamala Harris, on the other hand, must persuade voters she can improve their economic situation while defending the administration she has co-helmed for nearly four years.
“I just hope she’ll make this economy better than what it is. That’s my main thing,” Harris voter Phyllis Kimble said when asked what she hoped the vice president would do differently from Biden.
Noah Mason, a Harris voter in Durham, likewise said the economy, “tied in with climate change, especially,” was his primary concern. He’s saving up to move out of his parents’ home.
Finances were less of a concern to Mason’s mother, who also cast her ballot for Harris. Her and her husband’s 401(k)s have done “exceedingly well” under the Biden administration, she said.
The Tar Heel State has played host to both campaigns and their surrogates in recent weeks ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The state is expected to play a vital role in determining the next president.
—Samantha Flom and Nathan Worcester
BOOKMARKS
First Lady Jill Biden said Monday that her husband’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race was “the right call.” Though difficult, the couple is “ready for the new journey,” she said.
Tesla owner Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaways to registered voters in swing states could land him in legal trouble, several professors and former federal officials warn. The Musk-backed America PAC is framing the giveaways as job opportunities.
CBS News refuted former President Donald Trump’s claims that staff deceptively edited portions of the network’s “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. The former president’s campaign is calling on CBS to release the full, unedited transcript of the interview.
Republicans are dominating early in-person voting in Nevada, outnumbering Democrats nearly 2-to-1 at some locations across the state. Republican ballots also account for a narrow plurality of all accepted mail-in ballots thus far.
Control of the U.S. House of Representatives will likely come down to 20 contests across several states. The Epoch Times breaks down those races and what they could mean for the balance of power in Washington.
Volunteers from across the country have descended upon “Camp Unknown” in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, to provide disaster relief to locals affected by Hurricane Helene. The Epoch Times offers a glimpse into those efforts.
