President Joe Biden will deliver what will likely be the most important and watched speech of his political career on Thursday evening as he gives his third and final State of the Union address of his first presidential term.
In the backdrop of his televised primetime remarks, Biden, 81, is seeking reelection as he stares down a likely competitive rematch against former President Donald Trump, 77, in November.
Black voters, who played an outsized role in the Biden-Harris administration’s historic 2020 victory, will undoubtedly be watching and listening to hear from the president about how he has had their backs, as he promised he would when delivering his victory speech nearly four years ago after thanking them for their support.
As polls and anecdotal reporting suggest, some Black voters are disillusioned with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and feel their administration hasn’t sufficiently delivered on the promises made in 2020. To combat that, Biden, Harris, and cabinet officials have zigzagged across the country to share what they see as the “good news” of what has been done to improve the economic and social conditions for Black communities. The White House hopes the president’s address will also penetrate the American public, particularly Black Americans.
“It’s a beautiful story. We’re talking about an economy that’s created almost 15 million new jobs,” said Stephen Benjamin, a White House senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement.
“We’ve seen significant investments in HBCUs,” noted Benjamin, who said there will be new announcements “coming out” on the already record $7 billion invested in historically Black colleges and universities.
While listing a number of the president’s achievements, the White House official continued, “We’ve seen record African-American business startups … the lowest African-American unemployment ever recorded in history.” He said…
Read the full article here
