https://www.essence.com/news/black-men-share-where-they-stand-on-voting-2024-election/

from L toRKhalil Thompson, Executive Director, Win WIth Black Men, Christopher Towler, Director of the Black Voter Project and Diante Johnson, President of the Black Conservative Federation By Kizzy Cox ·Updated October 16, 2024

If you’ve opened your news feed or tuned into almost any TV news program lately, you’ve likely seen the headlines declaring how poorly Kamala Harris is doing with Black male voters. But is Kamala Harris’ standing with Black men truly dire?

Khalil Thompson, Executive Director of  Win With Black Men, says no. “We know the largest voting block that supports progressives and Democrats is Black women. Right behind that is Black men.” In 2020, 95% of Black women voted for Joe Biden, while 87% of Black men did. Research conducted by the Black Voter Project, a study that examines the political preferences and behavior of the Black community, also backs Thompson up. The study found that once Harris entered the presidential race, Black men’s favorable view of Harris rose to 61% compared to 63% among Black women.

Thompson says Black men are motivated by the prospect of putting the most qualified person in office, and he hasn’t seen misogyny play a major role in whether Black men support Harris or not. “The switch after President Biden decided to take a step back and Vice President Kamala Harris decided to run was just a no-brainer for many of us. How could we not support the most qualified candidate in the room and really amp up our communities?” That support for Harris was record-setting: the first Win With Black Men call after she entered the presidential race raised $1.3 million from about 17,000 Black donors in just a few hours.

Polls also show, however, that younger Black men are giving Donald Trump a closer look.   About one in four Black men under age 50 plan to vote for Donald Trump, according to a recent NAACP survey. 28-year-old Diante Johnson, president of the Black Conservative Federation,  is one example. As a lifelong Republican, Johnson has always felt more aligned with the traditional Republican values of limited government, freedom of speech and the second amendment right to own firearms and shared a few reasons why he thinks Trump appeals to some other Black men.

“Donald Trump, he’s a cutthroat. He’s a kind of tell-it-like-it-is type of person, and I think that is what’s attracted them to him.” Johnson said Black men are also drawn to Trump because they feel alienated by progressive stances on issues like LGBT identity, “Black men do not like the idea of their young boys being told they don’t have to conform to a gender.”

Additionally, Johnson believes that Trump’s delivering on his promises has earned him the respect of some Black voters: “I think he has been the best president for Black people, strictly because he’s done everything that he said he was going to do. What we’ve seen with criminal justice reform, my generation…we have not seen something of that magnitude before. Black Americans were thriving. We didn’t have to work three jobs…the economy was good in our communities.” He also cites increased funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and more school choice as tangible ways Trump has helped Black people.

These actions are in stark contrast to what he says is the Democratic party’s generational inaction. “As a Black community, we have been voting Democratic Party for years and we have not seen a change in our communities,” Johnson said.

However, several of the achievements that he mentioned have been bested by the Biden administration. For example, while Trump did provide $255 million annually for HBCUs through the FUTURE Act, Biden’s American Rescue Plan provided $2.7 billion to HBCUs. While Black unemployment under Trump sunk to 5.3% for two months in 2019, Black unemployment sunk to the lowest rate ever at 4.8% under Biden in April 2023; Biden has also overseen the longest stretch of Black unemployment at 6% or lower (17 months). 

While Trump’s bipartisan criminal justice reform, the First Step Act, reduced federal prison sentences by addressing the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. It lowered mandatory minimums and allowed early release for good behavior through “good time credits.” Biden’s Safer America Plan went further, eliminating the crack vs. powder cocaine sentencing disparity and investing $5 billion in Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs over ten years. These programs, using community messengers to reduce gun violence, have shown effectiveness of up to 60%. Biden’s American Rescue Plan also allocated $1.6 billion for workforce development and job training for formerly incarcerated people.

When ESSENCE pointed out the Biden Administration’s accomplishments, such as increased money for HBCUs, Johnson acknowledged that but credited the Republican party for the progression. “I guarantee you, if the Republican Party had not given them the space to do so, they wouldn’t have done it.”

Christopher Towler, Director of the Black Voter Project, Co-founder of Black Insights Research and Associate Professor of Political Science at Sacramento State University says while there’s always a nine or 10% core demographic of GOP-aligned Black voters who look more favorably upon Republican administrations, there’s another seven or eight percent of Black men who are eligible to vote but typically don’t  with a lack of policy awareness and are therefore more susceptible to “right-wing talking points.”

 He explained, “When you ask people what the parties have done for them, or what they think the parties will do for them, the low propensity voters are not very optimistic… They’re not politically knowledgeable, and so they don’t have this sort of deep understanding of policy nuance to understand how the Affordable Care Act might be like something helping the Black community. But when you ask them about Trump, they can make that connection far more easily.”

This is how you get people saying they’ll vote for Trump because of a pandemic stimulus check, said Thompson. “People talk about the check that he signed, the check, great, but the part they’re missing in that equation is that Congress, which means Kamala Harris, had to pass the money for the check to be signed.”

That’s key since the economy ranks high on issues that Black men are concerned about just as it does for Black women according to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll But surprisingly, it’s not the determining factor on who people vote for or even whether they’re going to vote at all. “The research we’ve been doing for the last three to four years specifically has shown that highlighting the threat that either Trump or MAGA or even the Supreme Court, other political institutions, organizations, policies, specifically highlighting the way that these are threatening to the Black community actually moves people to participate, and it’s especially effective for low propensity Black voters,” said Towler. Exit polls from ABC and the NYTimes support this research: 68% of people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 said they were voting against Donald Trump.   

 While issues like  abortion rights, which rank high for both Black men and women, are important to Black people, a low-propensity voter is more likely to turn out and vote when the issue is framed as a community concern or a right under threat of being taken away, said Towler. “It’s far easier for people to understand how rights that they’ve worked for, that their group has worked for, for generations, can get stripped away, than to understand the process of rebuilding or changing institutions towards new rights… it’s very easy to understand how abortion is just going to disappear over time unless we get some federal action that protects it.”

Thompson agrees that abortion is important to men, too. “I think there are some massive issues with our healthcare system and why I think more brothers are concerned about this.” Citing concerns men have for their partners and children, Thompson continued, “Reproductive care and a woman’s right to choose is not just a woman’s issue.”

Though Thompson and Johnson are on opposite sides of the political aisle, they both agree that  what Black men want is to be listened to. “Black men are at the bottom when it comes to education levels, you know, college degrees, even when you look at proficiency in reading and math and job rates. They’re at the top of the incarceration list there…that hurts me as a Black man to even think about that. And we have not had that conversation,” said Johnson.

Kamala Harris has said she’s listening to Black men’s concerns and responded with a targeted  “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men.” It lists five ways she would address issues Black men specifically face.

The plan would offer forgivable loans up to $20,000 for Black entrepreneurs, create training programs to help Black men secure high-paying jobs and support a regulatory framework for Black cryptocurrency investors. It would also launch a National Health Equity Initiative addressing health issues that disproportionately affect Black men, such as  prostate cancer, diabetes, and sickle cell disease, and seek to legalize recreational marijuana with opportunities for Black men in the industry.

Trump hasn’t yet released any plans for Black people or Black men in particular. 

Come November 5th, while Thompson supports Harris, he encourages Black men to vote for their preferred candidate: “If you’re going to go vote, that’s a win for me. Clearly, I would love it if you voted for the candidate I believe in that has the best opportunity to change our community for the better, but I want you to participate in the voting process.”

He also wants Black men to be well-informed as they make that choice.  “We need to make sure that the Black men who are informed get the proper information, share it with their family members, share it in barbershops, and continue to do so,” said Thompson.

TOPICS:  Black Men Election 2024 Paint The Polls Black

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