President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are intensifying their efforts to connect with Black voters through the launch of “Black Voters for Biden-Harris,” a national organizing initiative.
This targeted campaign initiative arises as Biden and Harris work to revive enthusiasm among a voter group that has traditionally supported them and the Democratic Party.
“Today’s launch of the Black Voters for Biden-Harris coalition is yet another example of our campaign working diligently to earn every single vote,” Biden’s deputy manager Quentin Fulks stated on Tuesday. “This coalition and the newly announced summer outreach and engagement programming serve as the next phase of our campaign’s ongoing historic investments in outreach to the backbone of the Biden-Harris coalition — Black voters.”
Biden and Harris plan to unveil “Black Voters for Biden-Harris” at a campaign rally on Wednesday at Girard College, a predominantly Black school in Philadelphia. Following the rally, Biden is expected to attend a small business event with the Black Chamber of Commerce at a nearby Black-owned business, as per the Biden campaign. A voter registration phone bank event will follow, kicking off a weekend of action.
Biden is expected to emphasize topics like the Black unemployment rate, Black wealth, Black healthcare insurance coverage, and Black federal student loan debt forgiveness during his remarks, even in the face of poor public sentiment regarding the economy.
The announcement will be bolstered by “an eight-figure investment in engagement programming” with Black student organizations, community groups, and faith centers nationwide and in pivotal states, along with advertising expenditures, according to the Biden campaign.
Other measures the campaign plans to implement include:
● Partnering with Black organizations to boost Black voter outreach and the campaign’s footprint in critical states;
● Coordinating with groups on voter education and registration, both online and in-person; and
● Leveraging partner networks to reinforce voter protection efforts.
Former President Donald Trump, Biden and Harris’s Republican adversary for the upcoming November election, similarly appealed to minority voters last week during a campaign rally in the Bronx, New York.
“While we are busy putting in the work to earn Black America’s support, Donald Trump continues to show just how ignorant he is,” Fulks added, “hosting janky rap concerts to hide the fact that he lacks the resources and competence to genuinely engage our community. We will continue to be aggressive, innovative, and thorough in our work to earn the support of the very voters who sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House in 2020 and will do so again in 2024.”
The Biden campaign, in a fact sheet, repeatedly labeled Trump as “racist.” It also addressed a concern among Black voters: the notion that Biden takes their support for granted.
“That’s exactly what we are doing through historic investments in Black media and outreach, creative engagement efforts, culturally competent content, and innovative organizing initiatives,” the Biden campaign wrote. “No campaign has valued Black voters like we have, including through investing earlier.”
Although most Black voters indicate their support for Biden over Trump in polls, the president’s lead of 59 percentage points, 77% to 18%, is narrower than in 2020 or for 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, according to Pew Research Center-validated voter studies.
Trump has tried to capitalize on these numbers by appealing to Black voters, telling a crowd last week in the Bronx that “it doesn’t matter whether you’re Black or brown or white or whatever the hell color you are.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “We are all Americans, and we are going to pull together as Americans!”
