Vice President Kamala Harris outlined Tuesday how her economic proposals could specifically help young black men, a key Democratic voting bloc with whom polls show Republican former President Donald Trump is gaining ground this election cycle.
“I think it's very important not to assume that black men are in anyone's pocket,” Harris said in an interview with a panel of the National Association of Black Journalists“I am working to earn the right to vote and I do not assume that I will get it because I am black.”
A brand new poll by the civil rights group NAACP, released Friday, found that greater than 1 / 4 of black men under 50 support Trump as an alternative of Harris.
To win those votes, Harris is specializing in an economic argument. At NABJ, she described how earlier this 12 months, before she became a presidential candidate, she went on a “tour promoting economic opportunity with a focus on black men.”
She also pointed to her work in investing “billions more dollars” into local banks to expand access to startup capital.
“We have so many entrepreneurs in the community who don't have access to capital, but have great ideas, an incredible work ethic, the drive, the ambition, the dream … but not necessarily the relationships” to get funding or start a small business, Harris said.
The Democratic presidential candidate referred to proposals akin to a $50,000 tax deduction for small businesses and the abolition of medical debt of credit scores – each of which, of their view, would goal the historical economic inequalities inside black communities.
“When they do better economically, we all do better,” Harris said.
Proposals like these could help Harris address two clear weaknesses within the Democratic Party this election cycle: public perceptions of the economic situation and the tendency of young black men to vote for Trump.
Before Harris took over the Democratic candidacy from President Joe Biden in July, Poll by NBC News found that 25% of black voters surveyed between the ages of 18 and 49 preferred Trump over Biden.
Biden won 92% of black voters within the 2020 election, in response to a Pew Research Center Analysis. The prospect that Democrats could lose 1 / 4 of voting-age black adults to a Republican set off alarm bells.
Polls suggest that Trump’s unusual strength Among black voters, this election cycle could also be partly as a result of nostalgia for the pre-Covid economy he presided over.
During the Biden-Harris administration, the high cost of living became voters' biggest concern because the U.S. economy struggled to get better from astronomical inflation attributable to the pandemic.
While Harris is portraying herself as a candidate of economic aid, her campaign team is concurrently working to secure the support of black voters.
During his own meeting with NABJ journalists in July, Trump faced backlash for questioning Harris' racial identity and calling her a “DEI worker.” He also chided the interviewers for asking questions on his past comments about black people, each of which Democrats And republican said they were racist.
“It was the same old show. The division and the disrespect,” Harris said Tuesday of Trump's appearance at NABJ. “And let me just say, the American people deserve better.”
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