Donald Trump and Vice President Harris are both set to court Black voters on Wednesday as Democrats hope their new candidate can re-energize their most reliable constituency and prevent the GOP from making gains.<\/p>\n
Republicans have been keen to improve their performance with Black voters and especially Black men, encouraged by polls that showed softening support for President Biden. But they could face a stiffer challenge now that Biden has bowed out of the 2024 race, paving the way for Harris \u2014 who is Black and Indian American \u2014 to lead the Democratic ticket.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s itinerary on Wednesday reflects his continued hopes to chip away at Democrats\u2019 traditional dominance with Black Americans. But it also underscores the resistance he is facing. He plans to sit for a Q&A midday at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago \u2014 an arrangement that immediately drew backlash from some members and that one former White House correspondent called a \u201cslap in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump is also holding a rally Wednesday night in Harrisburg, Pa.<\/p>\n
Harris, meanwhile, is expected to speak in Houston on Wednesday evening to a gathering of the sorority Sigma Gamma Rho \u2014 the latest in her extensive outreach to members of historically Black sororities and fraternities that make up the \u201cDivine Nine.\u201d Harris spoke to her own sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, in July and addressed another group, Zeta Phi Beta, last week.<\/p>\n
Democratic operatives say Harris\u2019s candidacy already shows signs of motivating Black voters \u2014 whose flagging enthusiasm for Biden had left a hole in the Democratic base. One CNN survey found that Black voters who previously split 70 percent for Biden and 23 percent for Trump backed Harris by a wider margin of 78 percent to Trump\u2019s 15 percent. Other polling shows less of a shift.<\/p>\n
Republicans are betting that a so-called \u201cHarris Honeymoon\u201d will fade and are pumping tens of millions into ads attacking Harris.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign said that in Chicago he will discuss \u201cthe most pressing issues facing the Black community\u201d in a conversation moderated by Harris Faulkner from Fox News, Kadia Goba from Semafor and Rachel Scott from ABC News.<\/p>\n
The former president has angered Black Americans in recent years with some racist and inflammatory comments and his promotion of false attacks. \u201cWhat the hell do you have to lose?\u201d he said when he ran in 2016, portraying Black communities as riddled with crime and poverty. Trump has also promoted a false conspiracy theory questioning the citizenship of Harris and has repeatedly mispronounced Harris\u2019s first name, a move some critics have derided as demeaning.<\/p>\n
Trump raised his political profile falsely claiming America\u2019s first Black president was born in Africa; lamented immigration from \u201cshithole counties\u201d; and in 2019 told four congresswomen who are racial minorities to \u201cgo back\u201d to the places they came from. Three of the lawmakers were born in the United States.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s team has made a point to hold Black outreach events, even as his rally crowds skew heavily White. In recent months Trump has campaigned at a Black church in Detroit and rallied in the South Bronx, where he touted his economic record and said his policies would protect voters of color from crime. A pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., has run some ads targeted to Black voters that hit the Biden administration on high inflation, undocumented immigration and transgender athletes\u2019 participation in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n
Trump has also suggested that Black voters like him more because of his criminal cases. \u201cI\u2019m being indicted for you, the Black population,\u201d Trump said this February at a gala for the Black Conservative Federation.<\/p>\n
Democrats, meanwhile, have promoted record-low Black unemployment during the Biden administration \u2014 and tried to communicate how their policies are helping Black voters who have often expressed cynicism about both parties. They have also accused Republicans of broadly trying to take the country backward.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross our nation, we are witnessing a full-on assault on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights,\u201d Harris told members of Zeta Phi Beta last week. She listed \u2014 among other concerns \u2014 \u201cthe freedom to live without fear of bigotry and hate\u201d and \u201cthe freedom to learn and acknowledge our true and full history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Clement contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump and Vice President Harris are both set to court Black voters on Wednesday as Democrats hope their new candidate can re-energize their most reliable constituency and prevent the GOP from making gains. Republicans have been keen to improve their performance with Black voters and especially Black men, encouraged by polls that showed softening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}