ATLANTA — Ahead of the presidential debate, both Republicans and Democrats are taking advantage of the attention surrounding the high-profile clash to promote their black voter outreach efforts, with particular attention to black men.
Former president donald trumpThe campaign deployed several high-profile black surrogates — Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, along with former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson — here Wednesday for a roundtable of Black American business leaders.
The event, at Rocky’s Barbershop, a black-owned business in Atlanta, was attended by several local business owners, all men.
After each surrogate praised Trump’s achievements for black voters to an audience of mostly reporters, Trump himself called in, repeating his often criticized cto lie that his criminal convictions increased his support among black Americans.
“Since this happened, black support, I think my representatives will tell you this, black support has skyrocketed,” Trump said. “I think they came to terms with the problems they had.”
Biden’s campaign was quick to attack what it framed as Trump’s “reduction” into a racist stereotype.
“This may be news to Trump, but Black and Latino voters want nothing to do with his racist stereotypes and know better than to believe his lazy and shameful attempts at ‘outreach,’” said Biden campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika.
After the event, Rocky Jones, the venue’s owner, would not say whether Trump or his black surrogates’ message was convincing enough to win their support in November.
“I’m looking at it. I just want to hear both sides of the story and then I’ll make my decision,” Jones said. “I just want to do what’s right. I want to vote for the person who’s going to help me and help the community.”
On Wednesday night, Donalds and Hunt will take their “Congress, Cognac and Cigars” tour to Fairburn, about 20 miles south of Atlanta, after an earlier stop in Philadelphia.
The intention of the event, according to organizers, is to facilitate “a real conversation about the black male vote, leadership and how they will impact the 2024 elections”.
Efforts by Trump and his allies to target black voters, with a focus on men, accelerated this month with the launch of his campaign program Black Voter Coalition Group and a series of events to attract black voters in Detroit and Philadelphia.
While Republicans remain hopeful that their efforts will translate into Trump winning a larger share of the black vote in states like Georgia, some Democrats remain skeptical.
Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, said focus groups conducted by the group of Black voters in swing states did not suggest a significant increase in support for Trump and accused his campaign of creating this narrative “out of thin air.”
“It’s up to him to be able to create this story about how much black voters love him and then at the end of the day when black voters don’t really turn out for him, they can be outraged about voter fraud or whatever. . will claim is the reason he loses,” Shropshire said.
Atlanta Republican organizer Michaelah Montgomery, whose group, Conserve the Culture, has worked to increase black support for Trump, disagreed, arguing that Trump outreach events are crucial and create a “community” for newer black conservatives who remain hesitant to express their support for him.
“It’s important for Black conservatives to know they have a community. Unfortunately, many black people feel that if they are conservative or lean conservative, they should stay silent about who they support because that would not align with social norms.”
Atlanta’s outreach efforts aren’t entirely surprising: According to Georgia’s secretary of state, black voters are the second-largest voting bloc in the state, constituting about 30% of Georgia’s active voters.
But although Black voters in the state vote overwhelmingly Democratic, pro-Biden organizers are also holding outreach events, aiming to “leave no Black votes on the table in November.”
“It’s one of the most outsized demographics, in terms of the power that Black voters will have, to decide, once again, not just who will be president, but who will be speaker of the House,” said Quentin James, founder and CEO of o Coletivo PAC, the largest political action committee that supports black candidates in the country.
The group supported Biden alongside organizations representing Latino and Asian American voters when he visited the state in March.
The Collective PAC, along with several other organizations, including 100 Black Men of America, plans to hold panels before and after Thursday’s debate, which will feature Black political commentators, politicians and businesspeople speaking directly to voters “about the implications for the world actual debate material covered.
On-site staff will also be available to assist attendees who have not yet registered to vote, a critical component of the event.
“We estimate that there are more than 800,000 eligible but unregistered African Americans in Georgia,” James said. “So there is an opportunity to engage people who are not registered.”
Meanwhile, another progressive group, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, plans to launch its black male relational organizing campaign during its debate-watching party in Atlanta, with the aim of specifically engaging a group of voters it says are often “left out of the conversation”. ”
“Black men are held accountable after an election if the results don’t turn out as people expected, and they are scrutinized to see if and how they turn out,” said Simran Jadavji, spokesperson for the New Georgia Project Action Fund. “But in the real conversation, in the many, many months and years leading up to election cycles, they are not involved in this way.”
People attending the event, which is scheduled to take place in a cigar lounge, will receive several texts on issues that organizers believe are relevant to black voters, including affordable housing, job creation and wage increases. If Trump or Biden address these issues, the hope is that participants will personalize and send the texts to their respective networks.
“We at the New Georgia Project Action Fund can only share so much information,” Jadavji said. “But if we have a team of 50 Black men who share across their networks, that is much more believable, credible, and invites much more dialogue in the coming months.”
According to exit polling data from NBC News, Trump won 11% of black voters in 2020, up slightly from the 9% he won in 2016.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
