Former President Donald Trump is the solution to the problems facing the black community, some black voters in Georgia believe.
The Peach State, a key battleground that President Joe Biden barely won in 2020, appears to be leaning toward Trump four years later, in part because of the black community’s increased support of the former president.
Only 77 percent of black voters say they support Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia, while Trump holds nine percent, and 12 percent are undecided, according to the latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey. Harris’s support is ten percent below the usual support a Democrat receives in the state.
Black voters appear to be trending toward leaving the Democrat party. From 2018 to 2022, the Republican share of the black vote jumped from 9 percent to 13 percent. Nationwide polling, meanwhile, shows Harris has about 12-15 percent less black voter support than Biden won in 2020.“Trump’s a man of his word. What he says he’s gonna do, he does,” first-time Trump voter Joseph Parker told Politico. “And everything is so high now — groceries high, clothes, everything, gas. And four years ago, it wasn’t that high. And so people see the difference in Kamala Harris and Trump, and they want some of what they had four years ago. And I do, too.”
Under the Biden-Harris administration, costs increased by about 20 percent across the board, Russia invaded Ukraine, Hamas and Iran attacked Israel, illegal migrants invaded the southern border, and the nation suffered the deadly Afghan withdrawal.
Arthur Beauford, a 28-year-old from Marietta, near Atlanta, said he is voting for Trump, although some of his family will remain in favor of Harris, who is running on the Democrat ticket. Beauford characterized Trump as “funny,” “entertaining,” and “brave.”
“I wouldn’t say he’s perfect or anything,” Samuel Kem, a 25-year-old black voter from Kennesaw, told Politico of Trump. “He will get the job done. He’s very talented in, like, diplomatic relations with other countries with mutual respect.”
“I’ll definitely take Trump over Harris,” he said, noting Trump’s business experience and Harris’s history as a California liberal. One of Kem’s top issues is “migration.”
With Trump gaining support among the black community, the Harris campaign rolled out an “Agenda for Black Men.” That agenda included legalizing marijuana, a new loan program, preferred banking options for entrepreneurs, preferred apprenticeship and mentorship programs, and preferred expanded health screenings. The campaign, however, repurposed the “Agenda for Black Men” on Wednesday. It will no longer exclusively target the black community.
“Marijuana? That’s just disrespectful,” Ken Wainwright, a Georgia labor organizer and former Atlanta City Council candidate, told the Journal-Constitution. “We’re fathers. We live in these communities. We want to get kids off that stuff.”
The Harris campaign has also rolled out former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to campaign for the vice president. Clinton appeared in Georgia this week, while Obama visited Pennsylvania.
“These are people who should have been easy for Harris,” Wainwright said of black men. “And now Obama is mad. Where you been, homie?”
RELATED — CNN’s Enten: Donald Trump’s Performance with Black Voters ‘Historic’
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
