WASHINGTON (AP) — A key ally and potential running mate of former President Donald Trump is launching a novel campaign to win over black and other non-white working-class voters in a move he says could be the deciding factor in November’s election.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, will lead a $14 million campaign targeting minority voters in seven key swing states.
Scott’s push comes as the Trump campaign ramps up its own efforts to reach Hispanic and black voters, particularly black men, in the expected rematch against President Joe Biden. Scott, one of several Republicans being fielded by the Trump campaign as vice presidential candidates, also gains another platform to demonstrate his loyalty – and usefulness – to the presumptive Republican nominee.
Scott says that with Trump as the frontrunner, Republicans have a unique opportunity to undermine Democrats’ historic dominance among minority voters. Polls show that many black and other non-white adults are unhappy with Biden’s performance, though Trump may face an uphill battle to win them over given his own unpopularity with those groups.
“To the great chagrin of many people, there is no doubt that African Americans are completely open to political party change,” Scott said as he briefed reporters in Washington this week on the effort.
The novel campaign will be run by Scott’s Great Opportunity PAC, which was formed after he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination last year. Aides say the group will try to win over voters in Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
The campaign includes door-to-door canvassing, digital advertising, direct mail, events and appearances by Scott and other elected officials in minority communities that Scott said Republicans have too often avoided.
While the campaign remains separate from Trump’s campaign, aides said Scott recently met with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump to brief them on his plans.
“We will fight for and earn the votes of Black and Brown voters to help Donald J. Trump win the presidency and retake the House and Senate for Republicans,” said a memo from Jennifer DeCasper, who ran Scott’s 2024 campaign.
Trump has held a series of events aimed at these groups in recent weeks, including a rally in the South Bronx, New York, and a dinner Wednesday night with students and graduates from historically black colleges and universities at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
At the same time, Democrats are making a major effort nationally to prevent Trump from gaining traction with one of their core constituencies. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black vice president, launched a campaign last week to appeal to Black voters, citing their efforts to escalate funding for those schools, forgive federal student loan debt and pardon those convicted of straightforward marijuana possession.
Biden-Harris’ senior spokeswoman, Sarafina Chitika, responded to the action by accusing Trump of “running his campaign the way he lived his life: He doesn’t give a damn about black people or our communities.” The statement cited Trump’s call for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, a group falsely accused of murder, as an example.
“President Biden is campaigning and running to win the support of black Americans, not to ask for it,” Chitika said.
Scott’s group believes a fundamental realignment is underway, pointing to Trump’s 2016 win over immense swathes of the white, blue-collar voters who once formed the Democrats’ heartland in the Rust Belt. Now, staffers see signs of a broader shift in which more non-white, blue-collar voters may also turn to Trump.
Even a compact shift of just a few percentage points among minority voters could make the difference in what is expected to be an extremely close election that will be decided in a handful of swing states.
In fact, many black and Hispanic adults are unhappy with Biden’s performance as president. According to polls from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Biden’s approval among black adults has fallen from 94% when he took office to 55% in March. Among Hispanic adults, it has fallen from 70% to 32% over the same period.
But a February AP-NORC poll found that only about a quarter of black adults have a favorable opinion of Trump, which could make it harder for him to capitalize on Biden’s shortcomings. Among Hispanics, the split is more even: About half (52%) have an unfavorable opinion of both likely candidates.
According to AP VoteCast, a comprehensive nationwide poll of voters, nonwhite voters overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020, regardless of their education level. About a quarter of nonwhite voters supported Trump that year.
Hispanic voters without a college degree supported Trump slightly more often than other non-white voters in 2020, according to the poll, but still overwhelmingly supported Biden. There was no education gap for black voters in 2020. About 9 in 10 black voters with or without a college degree supported Biden. Only about 1 in 10 supported Trump.
Still, Scott argues that Trump’s time in office has been better for African Americans. He points to policies such as the bipartisan criminal justice reform package Trump signed and his funding of historically black colleges and universities. Voters are enraged and want better economic conditions, safer neighborhoods and better schools, he says.
“We’ve seen a lot of seeds germinating in this soil,” he said. “With a good microphone — someone who can speak well into that microphone — we have a really good chance of making this election different than previous elections.”
According to Scott’s allies, this could include putting the senator on Trump’s ballot.
Many candidates on Trump’s vice presidential ticket are vying for Trump’s favor as the Republican National Convention approaches. Several candidates have traveled to New York to accompany Trump at his hush money trial, many of them echoing Trump’s attacks on the justice system.
Scott has appeared with Trump several times himself, including at fundraisers, and frequently defends him on television. Trump has joked that Scott was a far better surrogate than a candidate for the former president’s campaign.
Trump could be strengthened by his guilty verdict in New York on 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a plot to cover up hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 election campaign, Scott stressed.
“I honestly believe that last week’s decision on the 34 counts of impeachment actually helps bring more people to the Republican Party,” he said, referring to the wave of campaign donations that came after Trump became the first former president and likely nominee of a major party in U.S. history to be convicted of stern crimes.
He said black men in particular are fed up with what they see as a “two-tier justice system.”
“I think African-American men in particular have had a lot of experiences with the justice system, and not all good. And that’s why, faced with such a blatant injustice, a lot of African-American men have said, ‘You know what? I’m going to take a closer look at the Republican Party and the GOP,'” he claimed.
Trump made a similar point earlier this year at a gala for black conservatives in Scott’s home state of South Carolina, telling the audience that his criminal charges had boosted his support among blacks in the U.S. and likened his legal troubles to the historical legacy of anti-black bias in the U.S. legal system.
This comment was one of several that were criticized as racist or insensitive in the wake of Trump’s remarks.
When asked about these claims, Scott instead pointed to some of Biden’s controversial comments on race, including criticism of his now-vice president during the 2020 campaign over his stance on school busing as a means of desegregation.
“Honestly, I’m ready to take on this fight any day of the week,” he said.
___ Associated Press writers Linley Sanders, Amelia Thomson DeVeaux and Matt Brown contributed to this report.
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