Kamala Harris Heads to Georgia as Black Men Become Focus for Democrats
(Bloomberg) -- Kamala Harris galvanized Black women with her entry into the presidential race. Now her campaign needs to do the same with Black men.
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The Democratic presidential nominee embarks on a two-day bus tour of swing-state Georgia starting Wednesday, including travel through rural regions in a state with a significant Black population.
The trip takes Harris outside of the big, urban Democratic strongholds where they have looked to juice turnout and as party figures worry about the inroads Republican Donald Trump has made, particularly with younger Black men, whom polls show are more willing to entertain voting for a GOP candidate after post-pandemic inflation strained economic mobility.
Dan Kanninen, Harris’ battleground states director, highlighted the need to better engage Black men during a Bloomberg News roundtable on Aug. 22, when asked about efforts to target that group. Kanninen said the party too often ignored Black voters until Election Day.
“We have thought about the notion of persuading them to participate, as opposed to simply turning them out,” he said at the event on the sidelines of the Democratic convention. “If they’ve not heard from you all year and then you come knocking, it’s not a very good conversation.”
In a race expected to come down to the wire, Harris’ ability to reinvigorate support from Black men — or Trump’s ability to win over defectors who supported Democrats in 2020 — could prove decisive.
Harris’ tour with running mate Tim Walz will target Black voters along with rural communities and disaffected suburban Republicans wary of Trump. The tour culminates with a rally Thursday in Savannah, a Democratic enclave in a heavily Republican part of the state. The schedule highlights the campaign’s belief it will need to expand its outreach beyond just heavily blue cities such as Atlanta.
The vice president has prioritized winning back Black voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race earlier this summer, using early support from historically Black fraternities and sororities to energize initial donations and support behind her campaign. At last week’s convention, the party celebrated the legacy of Reverend Jesse Jackson, while giving prime speaking slots to prominent Black Democrats — from Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia to Barack and Michelle Obama.
“We cannot afford for anyone, anyone in America to sit on their hands and wait to be called,” Obama said in her Aug. 20 address. “Don’t complain if no one from the campaign has specifically reached out to you to ask you for your support. There is simply no time for that kind of foolishness.”
That rallying cry will be put to the test in Georgia, a bellwether where Black voters comprise about a third of the electorate, the largest share in any battleground. Biden carried the state in 2020 by less than a quarter of a percentage point.
“Campaigning in southern Georgia is critical as it represents a diverse coalition of voters, including rural, suburban, and urban Georgians – with a large proportion of Black voters and working class families,” Porsha White, Harris’ Georgia state director, said in a memo.
Trump Inroads
Republicans have made a concerted effort to chip away at Black voters, a bedrock of Democratic support. Trump has deployed high-profile Black surrogates, held rallies in minority communities and addressed conservative Black groups.
His efforts aimed to capitalize on polls showing Black support for Biden had softened due to frustration with the economy and other issues. The Republican won 12% of the Black vote in 2020 to 87% for Biden, according to exit polls and performed much better with Black men, winning 19% of their votes, compared to only 9% of Black women.
Resetting the Democratic ticket with Harris, who would be the first Black woman US president if elected, has reshaped the race, helping her party erase some of Trump’s gains with Black voters.
In preliminary data, the Black Voter Project found support for Harris compared to Biden has “dramatically increased,” according to the project’s founder, Chris Towler, who attributes the uptick in large part to Black men previously undecided or unlikely to support Biden.
“We are on an upswing right now,” former Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory said. But he cautioned there was more to do. “We have to communicate with Black men, specifically.”
Democratic Outreach
Janiyah Thomas, Trump’s director for Black media, said his message resonates because Black men and the community “have been taken for granted” by Democrats. And Republican Byron Donalds, a US representative from Florida and Trump ally, said Harris faces real challenges.
“Black men are looking at the facts, they’re not looking at the vibes,” Donalds said. “They’re saying what does this all mean for me in building generational wealth and having safe communities.”
Democrats at last week’s convention saw a panel on better engaging Black men and countering misinformation about Harris.
“There’s a lot of mis- and disinformation targeted specifically to Black men,” Dominik Whitehead, senior vice president of campaigns and mobilization for the NAACP, said, urging allies to “go back into our communities directly and actually talk about what the Biden-Harris administration has done directly for Black men.”
Panelists cited concerns from Black men, such as claims Harris put people in jail for marijuana offenses as California attorney general, when in reality most drug prosecutions happen at the local level.
Still, other Democrats have waved away concerns about Harris’ support with the group.
Kevin Tolbert, the Michigan Democratic Party’s 12th district chair, said there was renewed interest from Black men on organizing calls for Harris, who he said flipped many voters who were “leaning toward Trump.”
Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said polling numbers “shifted dramatically as soon as she entered the race, so it’s already happened.”
Longtime Congressman Jim Clyburn, though, hinted at the high stakes in the race.
“I would just say to anybody — Black or White, rich or poor, young or old — this is about real reality,” he said during the convention last week. “This is not a joke.”
--With assistance from Stephanie Lai and Akayla Gardner.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
