R. John Thomas, of Cincinnati, said he did not participate in a new NBC News poll indicating 20% of Black voters would consider voting for Donald Trump if the presidential election were held today. But if he had been polled, Thomas said, he is not sure what his response would have been.
This alarmed him. “It should be a no-brainer,” he said.
“I’m not a Trump supporter — let’s make that clear,” he said. “But I was concerned about President Biden. What has he done for Black people, who were a big reason for him winning? You hear that noise coming from the other side and you think, ‘It’s the same ol’, same old’: People begging for our votes, but not doing anything for us after they get it.”
“But I’m not panicking. The election is a year out,” Thomas, 37, added. “The picture will get focused over time. It’s all cloudy now. But it’s still concerning.”
The share of Black voters who have chosen Republican presidential candidates has been low since the 1960s, after President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, signed landmark civil rights legislation in 1964 and was elected to a full term later that year. Since then, the Black electorate has overwhelmingly sided with Democrats, with candidates earning 70% or more of the Black vote.
In 2020, 12% of Black voters sided with Trump, according to NBC News exit polling. By contrast, 87% chose Biden, who has openly attributed much of his win to the power of the Black electorate. The win was so crucial to the Democrats that the party moved up the primary election for South Carolina, a nod to the Black voters in the state who helped secure Biden’s nomination in 2020.
But an October New York Times/ Siena poll of voters in six battleground states also indicates a potential shift from 2020. Seventy-one percent of Black voters said they would likely vote for Biden if they had to choose a candidate, and 22% said they would likely choose Trump. The voters were in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada,…
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