TheGrio recently visited the Biden-Harris campaign’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, to participate in a Black press roundtable with senior staff officials to discuss President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ record and what the reelection operation is doing to court Black voters.
As the 2024 presidential election continues to build steam, the campaign hopes its early engagement with the Black electorate will pay off as the contest gets closer to what every primary election and poll has been pointing to for months: a rematch of Biden versus former President Donald Trump.
Based on conversations with campaign staff during theGrio’s day trip to Biden-Harris HQ, it’s clear that the campaign is projecting a sense of strength and confidence in the president’s chances of winning reelection despite reported concerns about his age and polls showing some Black voters aren’t yet sold on casting their ballots for another four years of Biden and Harris.
“We feel like if we’ve won it before, we can win it again, or we should be able to,” said Quentin Fulks, Biden-Harris deputy campaign manager.
While Fulks acknowledged that the Black vote has been “steadily declining for the Democratic Party,” he noted that it’s “not a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris phenomenon.” He explained, “That is a Democratic problem writ large. But [for] every campaign that comes along, it’s our problem now to deal with in order to get our candidates reelected.”
The campaign’s strategy in combating disillusionment among Black voters is to employ a “persuasion campaign” by reminding them what the Biden-Harris administration has done for Black communities. Through early investments in ads and paid media, the campaign is targeting eight battleground states where there are significant Black populations that could tip the scale in favor of the president and vice president: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada,…
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