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While the switch from President Joe Biden to Harris has seen gains among some constituencies, such as Black women and women in general, some Black male voters are feeling ignored. More than three dozen Black Detroit residents, including mostly male strategists, activists, clergy, elected officials, and likely voters, told Politico that the Harris campaign was neglecting Black males. They warned that the neglect could be fatal in November.
“I am worried about turnout in Detroit. I think it’s real,” former Harris Communications Director Jamal Simmons said.
The Black Detroiters speaking with the outlet derided Harris’s outreach to Black males as patronizing. They said questions about how their lives would improve under Harris were often met with officials and surrogates questioning their intelligence. They also complained that the campaign hasn’t reached out to poorer neighborhoods and has missed key campaign opportunities.
Bishop Cory Chavis of Victory Community Church interpreted the failure of Harris to speak at a gathering of faith leaders in Detroit, instead sending Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), as a slight.
“When you come to Detroit and you don’t meet with Detroit pastors, that’s a layup that you missed hard,” he said.
The Harris campaign’s problem with Black male voters is being replicated across swing states, threatening to depress voter turnout in areas where the state could be decided by mere thousands of votes. This is being acutely felt in Erie County, Pennsylvania, which Biden won by fewer than 1,500 votes in 2020.
The outreach by the Harris campaign in Erie is failing to meet expectations, according to a report from Reuters. One Black male voter said he supports former President Donald Trump because he’s “factual,” adding that the Harris campaign is overly focused on women’s issues.
“We don’t care about LGBT rights. We don’t care about, you know, abortion rights. We’re not worried about that,” he said. “They don’t offer anything to the straight Black male voters.”
Though still low, Trump’s support among Black males has doubled since 2016. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that 18% of Black men view Trump favorably, an increase credited to several factors, including Trump’s masculine appeal and anger over immigration.
“As they letting us go, they’re getting a busload of temporary workers — they’re all Mexican, none of them speak English. So they don’t care if we go on strike or not. We’ve been training these people to do our jobs,” Detroit Manufacturing Systems worker Eric Mays said at a gathering of mostly Black conservatives last week, Politico reported.
Last month, Harris made a direct appeal to Black male voters in an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia.
“I think it’s very important to not operate from the assumption that Black men are in anybody’s pocket,” she said. “Black men are like any other voting group. You’ve got to earn their vote. So I’m working to earn the vote.”
The 2024 election is set to be as close, if not more so, than 2020’s, with Trump and Harris much closer in the polls than Trump and Biden were the last time around.
