Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris addresses members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 17, 2024.
Piroschka Van De Wouw | Reuters
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday outlined how her economic proposals could specifically help young black men, a key Democratic voting bloc that polls show Republican former President Donald Trump is gaining ground on this election cycle.
“I think it’s really important not to assume that black men are available to everyone,” Harris said in an interview with a panel of the National Association of Black Journalists. “I’m working to win the right to vote, I don’t assume that I’m going to get it because I’m black.”
A new poll by the civil rights group NAACP released Friday found that more than a quarter of black men under 50 support Trump over Harris.
To win those votes, Harris is focusing on an economic argument. At NABJ, she explained that she embarked on a “black male-focused economic opportunity tour” earlier this year, before running for president.
She also highlighted her work to “inject billions of additional dollars” into community banks to expand access to start-up capital.
“We have so many entrepreneurs in the community who don’t have access to capital, but they have great ideas, an incredible work ethic, the ambition, the aspiration, the dream… but don’t necessarily have the connections” to secure financing or grow a small business, Harris said.
The Democratic presidential candidate cited proposals such as a $50,000 tax deduction for small businesses and eliminating medical debt from credit scores — two measures she said would target historic economic disparities within Black communities.
“When they do better economically, we all do better,” Harris said.
Proposals like these could help Harris address two distinct vulnerabilities of the Democratic Party this election cycle: public perception of the economy and young black men who tend to vote for Trump.
Before Harris took over as the frontrunner for President Joe Biden’s Democratic ticket in July, an NBC News poll found that 25% of black voters ages 18 to 49 preferred Trump to Biden.
According to a Pew Research Center analysis, Biden won 92% of the vote among black voters in the 2020 election. The prospect that Democrats could lose a quarter of black voting-age adults to a Republican has set off alarm bells.
Polls suggest that Trump’s unusual strength with black voters this election cycle may be due in part to nostalgia for the pre-Covid economy over which he presided.
During the Biden-Harris administration, the high cost of living became a top concern for voters as the U.S. economy struggled to recover from skyrocketing inflation following the pandemic.
As Harris strives to present herself as the economic relief candidate, her campaign is simultaneously working to build support among black voters.
During his interview with NABJ reporters in July, Trump was roundly criticized for questioning Harris’ racial identity and calling her a “DEI recruit.” He also chastised interviewers for their questions about his past comments about black people, which Democrats and Republicans alike have called racist.
“It was always the same show. The division and the disrespect,” Harris said Tuesday of Trump’s NABJ appearance. “And let me just say, the American people deserve better.”
