‘Demand more’: Why black voters are deserting Kamala Harris

In the lead-up to the US election we will be sending a special Harris v Trump edition of our What in the World newsletter every Tuesday. Below is an excerpt. Sign up to get the whole newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Greetings from Washington.

Yesterday I was out taking a brief walk in my bustling DC neighbourhood when I came across a man holding a giant sign.

“Demand more from Kamala or we vote for Jill Stein,” it said in large capital letters.

Democrat Michael Gee is disillusioned with Kamala Harris.Credit: Farrah Tomazin

Stein is a US Green Party politician who is running for the presidency as a progressive third-party candidate, just as she did in 2012 when Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney, and in 2016 when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.

But while the 74-year-old social justice activist has no chance of winning the White House, Democrats fear she could give Trump an edge by bleeding votes that might otherwise go to Harris.

Michael Gee, the man holding the sign, is now one of those votes.

“Vice President [Kamala] Harris is running to the right of President [Joe] Biden,” says the lifelong Democrat, who has been travelling around the country protesting over his party’s refusal to tackle issues such as the war in Gaza, the $US15 ($22.30) minimum wage, and universal healthcare.

“You can’t run to the right of President Biden and think you’re going to get a lot of progressive voters, pro-Palestine voters, and young voters.”

In many ways, Gee is emblematic of a challenge Harris now faces. With three weeks until election day, the Democratic candidate needs to shore up her standing among black men, whose traditional support for Democrats appears to be softening.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris prefer not to talk about America’s mounting debt load.Credit: AP

While the vice president is still on track to win the overwhelming majority of this crucial group, a New York Times/Siena College poll suggests Trump’s popularity among black voters is rising, and is now six points higher than it was at the last election in 2020.

What’s more, even though 78 per cent of black voters in the poll say they plan to vote for Harris in November, this is substantially down on the 90 per cent Biden received when he beat Trump by a narrow margin four years ago.

If such a drop holds, it could imperil Harris’ chances in critical battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, where Trump tends to do better among white working-class men.

It’s little wonder the Harris campaign has embarked on an all-out blitz to shore up more support among its traditional base.

Kamala Harris (centre) applauds alongside former congresswoman Eva Clayton (left) and Bishop Rosie O’Neal, during a church service at Koinonia Christian Centre in Greenville, North Carolina, on Sunday.Credit: AP

Harris on Monday unveiled an economic agenda that included one million forgivable loans for black entrepreneurs to start a small business, training for black people in “high demand” industries, and the legalisation of marijuana, which disproportionately affects black people because they are more likely to be incarcerated.

She has also spent the past few days visiting black communities and churches, and will do a town-hall style interview in Detroit with influential radio show host Charlamagne tha God, whose program The Breakfast Club is the most-listened-to hip-hop and R&B morning show in the country.

And last week, Barack Obama joined the Harris campaign in Pittsburgh, where he suggested, somewhat controversially, that some black men are refusing to support her due to sexism.

“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses,” Obama said to them.

Former US president Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally in Pittsburgh.Credit: AP

“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

For folks like Gee, who would still be open to voting for Harris if, for example, she committed to halting weapons to Israel, the comments were insulting.

“I’ve never seen president Obama chastise white men like that, or white women like that,” says the DC-based tennis instructor. “I understand what he’s trying to do, but it’s a little misplaced.”

In South Carolina, former Democrat Chris Salley takes a similar view.

Former Democrat Chris Salley quit the party last year, partly because of a concern Joe Biden was too old for a second presidency.

The 32-year-old was chair of his local party branch but defected in October last year, partly over the Gaza war, partly because he didn’t feel that young, black voters like him were being heard, and partly because he believed Biden was too old for another term.

“It wasn’t just Biden’s age but the way his age influenced how out of touch he was, and that was reflected in his stances and policies,” says Salley, who is planning to vote for Stein or another third-party candidate in November.

“Now what are we getting? Those same positions and stances but in a new, superficial package. When I see how closely Kamala Harris is tying herself to the Biden administration’s policies, it shows me that the Democratic Party still isn’t listening.”

Damase Pendelton at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania at the weekend.Credit: Farrah Tomazin

Comments like these are an ominous sign for the Harris campaign, which knows it can’t just bank on a wave of support from voters simply because they like the idea of having the first black woman in the Oval Office.

Black voters, like Latino voters, are not a monolith, but many I’ve spoken to genuinely feel the Biden-Harris administration has not done enough to address economic disparities or criminal justice policies that disproportionately affect their communities.

Others say they still don’t know what Harris stands for, citing her flip-flopping on everything from banning fracking to her previous disdain for a border wall.

And some, like Damase Pendelton, who I met at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania this month, simply prefer the former president, drawn by his “America First” policies and hardline stance on issues such as immigration.

“My family came off a plantation and fought for freedoms,” he told me. “Trump stands for a lot of the freedoms that we fight for, and now they’re under attack.”

Harris began with extraordinary momentum but knows she has to do more. As she acknowledged in an interview on The Shade Room on Monday: “Black men are no different to anybody else – they expect that you have to earn their vote.”

But with 22 days left until election day, will it be enough?

Until next time,

Farrah

What to know:

• Kamala Harris has agreed to do her first-ever interview with Fox News, which will air at 6pm on Wednesday, US time.
• The US is sending one of its most advanced missile defence systems and about 100 American troops to Israel as tensions with Iran escalate.
• Donald Trump has railed against a newly released movie about his life, calling The Apprentice biopic a “cheap, defamatory and politically disgusting hatchet job” designed to thwart his presidential candidacy.

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