ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris announced a plan Monday to give Black men more economic opportunities and other opportunities to thrive as she works to bolster a key voting bloc that worries about a lack of enthusiasm among Democrats is.
Harris’ plan includes providing discounted business loans to Black entrepreneurs, creating more apprenticeships and studying sickle cell anemia and other diseases that disproportionately affect African-American men.
Harris has already stated that she supports marijuana legalization, and her plan includes working to ensure that black men have the opportunity to participate as “a national cannabis industry takes shape.” She also calls for better regulation of cryptocurrency to protect Black men and others who invest in digital assets.
The Vice President’s “Black Male Opportunity Agenda” aims to empower African-American men at a time when there are fears some will sit out the election rather than vote for Harris or her opponent, former Republican President Donald Trump.
The vice president unveiled the plan while visiting Erie, Pennsylvania, where she stopped by LegendErie Records and Coffee House, a Black-owned diminutive business, to chat with local Black men.
The business, which opened just five weeks ago, is the project of Ishmael and Allana Trainor, a couple from Erie who returned to their hometown after years of living in Arizona.
Harris later held a campaign rally in the northwestern Pennsylvania city where she denounced Trump for suggesting in a weekend interview with Fox News that the U.S. military might need to be used to defeat an “enemy from within.” “ to suppress if election day is disrupted by agitators.
Her push comes after former President Barack Obama suggested last week that some black men “don’t like the idea of having a woman as president.”
The Harris campaign has also worked to escalate support among other male voter groups, including Hispanics, by creating the group “Hombres con Harris,” Spanish for “Men with Harris.” The recent introduction of the policy is notable because it has the stated goal of motivating black men to vote just weeks before Election Day.
Like her campaign with the group Hombres, Harris’ team plans to organize gender-specific meetings. These include “Black Men Huddle Up” events in battleground states where African-American male celebrities observe parties for NFL and NCAA football games, for example. The campaign says it also plans new testimonial ads in battleground states that feature local Black male voices.
Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign and a former black congressman from Louisiana, said Harris wants to build an economy “where black men are equipped with the tools to thrive: buy a home, provide for our families, start a home.” . “Do business and build wealth.”
Black Americans strongly supported Joe Biden when he defeated Trump in 2020. Harris aides say they are less concerned that enormous swaths of black men’s support could be lost to the former president than that some will choose not to vote at all.
Trump has also stepped up his efforts to win over black and Hispanic voters of both genders. He has held roundtables with black business owners in swing states and will participate in a town hall this week sponsored by Spanish-language Univision. He has also tried to openly stoke racial divisions by repeatedly pointing out that immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally are taking jobs away from black and Hispanic Americans.
Harris’ new round of proposals includes a promise that, if elected, she will lend a hand distribute a million loans of up to $20,000 that are fully forgivable to Black entrepreneurs and others who have forceful ideas for starting a business. The loans would come through new partnerships between the Small Business Administration and community leaders and banks “with a demonstrated commitment to their communities,” her campaign said.
The vice president also wants to provide federal incentives to encourage more African American men to train to become teachers, citing statistics that Black men made up just over 1% of the nation’s public school teachers in 2020-2021, according to data the National Teacher and Principal Survey.
Harris also promises to expand existing federal programs that forgive some public service education loans to encourage more black male teachers. She also wants to leverage organizations like the National Urban League, local governments and the private sector to expand apprenticeships and certification opportunities in Black communities.
The vice president’s aides have urged her to talk more about cryptocurrencies to appeal to male voters. Her campaign said that as president, Harris would support a regulatory framework that would better protect investors in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets popular with black men.
Harris also pledged to create a national initiative to better fund efforts to detect, research and combat sickle cell anemia, diabetes, prostate cancer, mental health issues and other health problems that disproportionately affect black men.
A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about seven in 10 black voters had a favorable view of Harris, preferring her leadership to Trump’s on key policy issues such as the economy, health care, abortion and immigration the war between Israel and Hamas. There was little difference in support for Harris between black men and black women.
