What’s going on with Black Biden voters? More specifically, where are they?
Politics :
In 2020, Joe Biden had a lock on Black voters across America. A huge majority feared another 4 years of Donald Trump and saw Biden as a knight in shining armor who could take ‘The Donald’ down, salvage the country, and make life better for African-Americans and other minorities.
However, that was then and this is now. Or, to put it bluntly, those Black Biden voters have either become disenchanted with his abilities to lead the country, disappointed with a perceived lack of him doing anything substantial for the Black community, or completely disinterested in politics altogether.
Granted, Black Biden supporters over the age of 40 still appear engaged and hell-bent on denying Donald Trump Round 2 inside the Oval Office. Sadly, it’s Black voters under the age of 40 who have Democrats most concerned.
According to NBC News, Black voters in 2023 favored Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 73% to 17%. However, when it came to voters under the age of 34, the margin shrank to 60% while Trump’s rose to 28%. To put it further into perspective, Mr. Biden won 87% of support from Black voters in 2020, including 89% under the age of 29, as well as 78% of Black voters 30 to 44. Now, those numbers appear to be shifting.
“I will not vote for Joe Biden. Unless he calls for a ceasefire right now, stops sending money right now, maybe I’ll vote for him,” 34-year-old Corryn Freeman, a lifelong Democratic voter and the head of the Future Coalition (which works directly with young voters and changemakers) said. “For me, the level of disappointment in this president is so much so that you can’t get my vote. I’m open to electing a third-party candidate because the two-party system for me does not feel like it works.”
“I think the issue is not just Joe Biden. I think the issue is also the Democratic Party. I feel as if, for a long time, we are put into this position where we just need to make a strategic vote to stop the lesser of the evils,” Valencia Gunder, a Floridian who heads up The Smile Trust (an organization that provides food, housing security, and disaster relief to underresourced communities) said of Black voters. “I feel like that was the situation when Joe Biden won in 2020, but we haven’t seen anything that has shifted the material conditions of our people.”
Interestingly, polls conducted by the New York Times and Siena College last November revealed that 22% of Black voters in 6 of the most important battleground states –- Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin –- said they would support Trump in 2024. Additionally, Black rappers and some members of the hip-hop community have announced their allegiance to Donald Trump. According to a former Biden administration official, young Black voters are no longer taking cues from long-standing institutions, activists, and party leaders, but are instead looking to people “in the culture”: social media influencers, grassroots leaders, music personalities, and urban radio.
This new reality has Democratic operatives wondering if Trump’s policies are really that enticing to Black voters, or if these young Americans have simply become enamored with his alleged “badass” persona.
Needless to say, the disinterest of younger Black voters has created concern for Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. Mr. Clyburn was instrumental in winning his state for Joe Biden in 2020 and in whipping up Black support for Mr. Biden throughout the country. Now, after speaking on behalf of Biden last Sunday at a Black church in South Carolina, Clyburn saw middle-aged and elderly congregants applauding his message — but younger Black voters tuning him out.
“Do you want this country to be led by someone who time and time again demonstrates misogynistic tendencies and racist attitudes? Is that what you want?” Rep. Clyburn shouted at young voters outside an early polling place in Orangeburg.
“Just compare Biden’s history to Trump’s,” he continued. “Trump has demeaned Black Americans for decades, while Biden has compiled a record rivaling that of Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society.’
“I just hope that in 2024 we are not going to find ourselves as a country falling into what Germany fell into in 1932,” he said, referring to the period when the Nazis came to power.
Clyburn added that young Black voters need to appreciate and recognize that with Donald Trump in the 2024 election, they have a duty and no practical option other than to vote for Biden.
Of young Black voters who’ve grown disenchanted with President Biden, Clyburn concluded: “I want them to stand in front of me and tell me they will support that [Trump’s record] over Joe Biden’s record.”
Clyburn’s concern poses valid questions for the so-called ‘Biden’s Black voters’ and, more specifically, younger Black voters: Is Donald Trump some sort of Svengali for the Black community? Is President Biden a legitimate problem? Is the Democratic Party’s expectation that Blacks will support the party ‘no matter what’ the issue? Or, is the current state of politics the real problem?
OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Where are all of Biden’s Black voters?
I can’t speak for other Black voters but I can speak for me. Biden will get my vote. However, this time, unfortunately I’m voting Against Trump not for Biden.
The Israeli Zionist war against the Palestinian people sickens me to my stomach and breaks my heart. Joe Biden played right into Netanyahu’s hand and now the whole world gets to it to witness unconditional human slaughter as it unfolds, in real time.
And I’m enraged that even one cent of my hard earned tax dollars goes to Isreal every year. An estimated $4 Biilion of U.S. tax money goes to Israel every year!