Black voters in Georgia were critical to Joe Biden’s win in 2020, but are they turning their backs on the incumbent for 2024? The latest polling shows that Biden’s popularity is dropping with this key demographic.
A CBS News poll has shown that 76% of likely Black voters said they backed Biden’s reelection bid which is down almost 10% from the 87% who voted for him in 2020. In 2020, Georgia was one of Mr. Biden’s closest victories, with fewer than 12,000 voters making the difference — and Black voters were a key part of Mr. Biden’s winning coalition there.
The Biden-Harris campaign appears to have taken notice. Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off a multistate tour this week in Atlanta, to talk about investments in Black communities and opportunities for minority families to build wealth under the Biden administration.
Speaking to CBS News, James Butler, a Black, 42-year-old Atlanta-based Democrat, is planning on casting his ballot for President Biden in November — but he isn’t so enthusiastic this time around.
“I guess it’s the best we got,” he said about the 2024 election.
Butler’s not alone among Black voters in Georgia in his lack of enthusiasm in voting for Mr. Biden for a second time.
Organizers with the New Georgia Project, a Black voter advocacy group based in Atlanta, who have seen the drop, believe younger males have been particularly slow to return to Mr. Biden’s fold.
“Young Black men are more likely to say that they will vote for Trump,” said Ranada Robinson, a researcher for the New Georgia Project. “But, what I am most concerned about this year is that about 30% was undecided at the time of our poll.”
Like Butler, even younger Black male voters who support Biden say they just aren’t excited about a 2020 rematch.
I think my vote’s the same, but I’m less enthusiastic,” said Phillip Dunwood, 21, a student at Georgia State University. “It’s more like, ‘alright, let’s get it over with’.”
Meanwhile, Republicans are hoping to capitalize on that dissent and peel Black male voters away from the Biden coalition.
The Black Conservative Federation (BCF), a network of African American GOP activists, rolled out its 2024 get-out-the-vote policy plan in April titled “Black Men Matter.” The plan will see the group’s outreach organizers targeting Black men in six battleground states – Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania – through grassroots outreach and programming.