Former President Trump will look to build on polls showing surprising strength among Black voters on a campaign swing this weekend through Michigan, a battleground state President Biden narrowly carried in 2020.
Trump will meet with community leaders Saturday at the 180 Church in Detroit.
In 2020, Biden took 92 percent support among Black voters, against 8 percent for Trump.
No one is expecting a complete realignment among Black voters, but recent polls show a small but meaningful percentage of Black men and younger Black voters moving toward Trump.
In Michigan, those shifts around the margins could potentially swing the outcome in a close race. Democrats were already concerned that backlash to Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war could keep Michigan’s large population of Arab and Muslim voters at home on Election Day. More than 100,000 Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the Michigan primary.
In an interview Friday on Fox Business, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate and a potential running mate for Trump, made the case for Black voters switching.
“Supporting the candidate that will purge the Department of Justice of the political nature of it, supporting the candidate where their wages grew faster at the bottom than at the top, supporting the candidate that closes the border. This border crisis devastates poor communities first. That candidate is Donald Trump. That makes this decision and easier than this decision than it’s been in for decades.”
A roundup of recent polls:
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The latest CBS News/YouGov survey puts Biden’s Black support at 81 percent, compared to 18 percent for Trump.
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A New York Times/Sienna College battlegrounds survey from May found Biden at 63 percent among Black voters and Trump at 23 percent, with 14 percent undecided.
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An April Wall Street Journal survey put Trump at 30 percent among Black men and 12 percent among Black women.
Some Democrats have dismissed these polls due to the relatively small sample sizes. In a Friday interview with Politico, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said “something is amiss with the polling.”
“I don’t know what’s happening here, but I do know this: that anybody who believes that Donald Trump will get 30% of the Black male vote or 12% of the Black female vote, I got a bridge down there on Johns Island I’ll sell you.”
A Pew survey from May of more than 700 Black voters found Biden at 77 percent and Trump at 18 percent. That survey also found Biden leads Trump 68-29 among Black voters between the ages of 18 and 49.
Republicans are hopeful that kind of swing could impact the outcome in Michigan, where Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by fewer than 3 points.
Biden’s surest path back to the White House entails holding on to his Blue Wall in the Midwest, so a Trump victory in Michigan, which he won by the narrowest of margins in 2016, could prove decisive.
The Biden campaign has also focused heavily on Black voter outreach, including in the Midwest.
- Biden traveled to Detroit in May to address the NAACP’s 69th annual Fight for Freedom Fund dinner.
- Vice President Harris was in Detroit last weekend for a Michigan Democratic Party fundraiser.
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Biden addressed graduates last month in Atlanta at Morehouse College, a historically black college.
At the Juneteenth celebration this week at the White House, Biden warned of “ghosts in new garments trying to take us back.”
“[They are] … taking away your freedoms, making it hard for Black people to vote or have your vote counted, closing doors of opportunity, attacking the values of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
More campaign coverage:
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Trump, McConnell bury the hatchet with eye on GOP takeover.
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Harris is Biden’s secret weapon in swing-state North Carolina.
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Biden campaign is going all out to highlight Trump’s disparaging remarks about Milwaukee, where Republicans will hold their nominating convention.
