by Sharelle Burt
May 7, 2024
Are we really surprised here?
Black men in Georgia aren’t as excited as they were in 2020 to vote for President Joe Biden in November’s 2024 presidential election.
The demographic’s vote made a major difference in the controversial 2020 election — less than 12,000 voters pushed the vote blue. But things have changed since. A poll from February 2024 revealed 76% of potential Black voters said they would support Biden’s reelection bid, a drop from 87% who voted for him in 2020.
Some young and older voters are just ready to move on from the rematch between Biden and former president Donald Trump. James Butler, a 42-year-old voter based in Atlanta, said, “I guess it’s the best we got,” pushing his lack of enthusiasm this time. The same goes for Georgia State University student Phillip Dunwood. “I think my vote’s the same, but I’m less enthusiastic,” he said.
“It’s more like, ‘Alright, let’s get it over with.’”
Organizers with the Black Voter advocacy group, New Georgia Project, are concerned about the slow-growing support of President Biden from younger men.
“Young Black men are more likely to say that they will vote for Trump,” researcher Ranada Robinson said. “But, what I am most concerned about this year is that about 30% was undecided at the time of our poll.”
She found that a major reason is the online misinformation, which pushed Biden’s interest away. “Particularly online, there are some narratives that misplace the credit for some of the wins that we’ve seen in America,” Robinson said.
“There’s also some misplacement of blame. When you see certain Supreme Court decisions or some of the things that have long-term impacts of past administrations, this administration is suffering the consequences of it.”
The Biden-Harris campaign has noticed the narrative and is making strides to change it. Vice President Kamala Harris started a multistate tour on May 5, beginning in Atlanta, focusing on investments in Black communities and wealth opportunities for minority families under the Biden administration.
Campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said they plan to “keep talking about the record and the work that is being done to advance the economic opportunity for young Black men across this country.”
In the meantime, the GOP and conservative-led groups are using every trick in the book to persuade Black men to the Republican side. The party depends upon groups like the Georgia Black Republican Council to get in well with the Black community.
Mentorship is one method member Darryl Wilson said the group is using to help court Black men into considering voting red in November. “We’ve done Black conservative summits. We’ve done ‘barbershop-political forums.’ We bring government to the people in the local communities, wherever they can ask direct questions and get direct answers,” Wilson said.
A network of African American GOP activists, the Black Conservative Federation (BCF), launched a vote policy plan in April titled “Black Men Matter.” Through outreach and programming, the plan aims to target Black men in six battleground states — Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania.
However, some Black men have no plans to move their vote from one side to another. Voter Alexander Hoskin told Forbes he plans to vote for Biden in November. After the State of the Union Address in March 2024, the father of three appreciated Biden’s push on mental health and prescription drug costs. As a person with diabetes, he was on the receiving end of a policy that lowered the cost of prescription drugs for those suffering from diabetes.
However, Hoskins and fellow Democratic voter Brandon Jones want to see more from Biden if reelected. “Instead of constantly telling us what you’re going to do, President Biden should tell us what you are trying to do,” Jones said.
“We don’t live in a dictatorship, so a president can’t say, ‘I’m gonna do something without Congress.’”
