Vice President Harris is increasing her efforts to reach black men fears that their support with the voting bloc becomes milder.
Harris is meeting with Charlamagne tha God in Detroit on Tuesday and announced a series of actions Monday aimed at reaching out to the group.
Their efforts come amid signs that former President Trump is making progress among black men and amid fears that black male voters may not vote at all in November.
“If Harris doesn’t get over 90 percent [with Black men]then she’s in trouble,” said Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton. “She really needs to motivate black voters and find a way to get them to turn out, especially men.”
Concerns about Harris’ waning popular support became even clearer last week when former President Obama sent a powerful message to black voters in Philadelphia, chiding them for “finding all sorts of reasons and excuses” Not to support Harris, and her gender pointed to a possible factor.
“Because part of it makes me think – and I speak directly to men – part of it makes me think that you just don’t feel the idea of having a woman as president and come up with something. “There are other alternatives and other reasons why,” Obama said.
Other figures within the Democratic Party also appear to suggest that some black men do not support Harris because she is a woman.
Actor Ed O’Neill urged voters in a recent ad to “Be a man: vote for a woman.” During the Democratic National Convention in August, actor Wendell Pierce said black men need to “look at their own inadequacy” if they have a problem voting for a black woman.
“There are some men who can’t even imagine there being a woman as president,” said Chris Gunther, a popular host.
The sense of urgency for Harris was reinforced by a New York Times and Siena College poll that showed warning signs for her among the voting bloc. While 83 percent of black women said they supported her, only 70 percent of black men said the same.
The gender gap is particularly pronounced among youthful black men: 25 percent of them said they would support Trump over Harris in November.
“This is truly the first election where both parties have had to fight for the black vote,” Quenton Jordan, vice president of the Black Conservative Federation, told The Hill.
“In previous elections, black votes almost always went to the Democratic Party in large numbers. Now you have a Republican candidate and Donald Trump addressing the issues of the black community, particularly black men. His message resonates because he speaks about issues that families talk about at the dinner table and men talk about in barbershops.”
Harris appears to be taking these signs seriously and has stepped up her appeals to black men in recent weeks.
“Black men are no different from anyone else. They expect that their vote has to be earned,” Harris said in a recent interview with The Shade Room’s Justin Carter.
She has announced a “Black Male Opportunity Agenda,” which includes providing 1 million compact business loans with forgiveness of up to $20,000; training and mentoring programs designed to support open the door to “high-demand” industries; and an initiative focused on addressing health issues that disproportionately affect Black men.
She has also vowed to legalize marijuana and ensure that black men benefit from its business potential.
Meanwhile, Black leaders who support Harris have stepped up their criticism of Trump’s rhetoric — including Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-D.C.), one of the most powerful Black men in Congress.
While Clyburn said he doesn’t blame Trump for trying to win support among black voters, he said he has “pity” for those who refuse to look back on his controversial – and sometimes racist – statements .
“Donald Trump has absolutely no respect for people of color,” Clyburn said. “He has proven that time and time again. He did that with the five young men of color who were accused of a crime they didn’t commit, and he showed what he thought about them by calling for the death penalty to be reinstated and spending his own money on a full-page ad in The New York Times to do that. That’s disrespectful. I feel sorry for any Black person who refuses to acknowledge that.”
“There are some people who [would] “Prefer master’s favor over being free from him, and if that’s your problem, there’s not much I can do about it,” he added.
Still, advocates acknowledge there is still much work to be done — by both parties — when it comes to building support among black men.
“With a lack of trust in the political infrastructure and candidates to do what they say on behalf of black men, we are seeing brothers truly choosing between the couch or the candidate, not between Republicans and Democrats,” said he Mondale Robinson, founder of the Black Male Voter Project.
Part of the problem, Robinson said, is that neither campaign spent time speaking directly to black men.
“Both campaigns do a terrible job of reaching black men. The effort was haphazard at best,” Robinson said. “This demographic has seen itself as a victim of politicians and political systems in a way that no other demographic in America can.”
Robinson pointed to the problems of police brutality, where black men are killed by police officers at higher rates than other populations. Black men also experience some of the worst health outcomes. And studies have shown that they have a harder time escaping poverty than their white counterparts.
Observers say candidates often only talk to black men about criminal justice issues.
“Somehow we’re stuck with it like we’re a one-legged stool or a trick pony,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist. “The fact is that we care about the economy. We care about healthcare. Education is important to us. We care about an environment that is cleaner, greener and better than we found it. We care about all the things that every other constituency cares about.”
Black men consistently felt unheard when they raised these concerns, observers say. As a result, Democrats have been slowly losing support among black voters for years, while Republicans have been steadily gaining.
Republicans, meanwhile, argue that Trump’s tough message is resonating with voters.
“I think some of these younger black men look at Trump and think, ‘Well, hey, I think he’s going to do better on the economic front.’ I think he’ll be more pro-immigration,” Singleton said. “When Trump comes out and says, ‘If Iran does this, we’ll bomb them to death,’ a lot of people like that because a lot of people say, ‘That’s what we need in a leader.’ We need someone who won’t fool anyone.’”
The election cycle has shown undeniably, said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), that black men are not a monolith.
“We don’t all think the same. We don’t all agree 100 percent the same, nor should we. We have the right to take a political perspective and hold everyone who runs for office accountable,” Horsford, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), told The Hill’s “The Switch Up” podcast.
Still, Horsford – and the majority of the CBC – are working to elect Harris.
“I think it’s time to turn the page, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that black men know the record and when they know the record, and the choice between the two options – one, that moves us.” “I believe that black men, like all black voters, will vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on their ballot,” Horsford said.
