Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, September 17, 2024.
Piroschka van de Wouw | Piroschka van de Wouwreuther
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday laid out how her economic proposals could specifically help young Black men, a key Democratic voting bloc that polls show former Republican President Donald Trump is seeing gains in this election.
“I think it’s really important that we don’t operate under the assumption that black men are in somebody’s pocket,” Harris said. National Association of Black Journalists“I’m not expecting to get the right to vote because I’m black, I’m working to get the right to vote.”
According to a new poll released Friday by the civil rights group NAACP, More than a quarter Percentage of black men under 50 who support Trump over Harris.
Harris has focused on economic arguments to win votes. She told NABJ that she embarked on an “economic opportunity tour focused on Black men” earlier this year before announcing her candidacy.
She also mentioned her efforts to “raise billions more dollars” for regional banks to expand access to startup capital.
“There are a lot of entrepreneurs in our community who don’t have access to capital. They have great ideas, incredible work ethic, ambition, aspirations, dreams … but they don’t necessarily have the financing or the connections necessary to grow their small businesses,” Harris said.
Democratic presidential candidates have proposed a $50,000 tax credit for small businesses and Medical Debt She believes both are intended to target historic economic disparities within the Black community.
“If they’re better off financially, we’re all better off,” Harris said.
Those proposals could help Harris address two major weaknesses for Democrats this election cycle: public perception of the economy and young black men who tend to vote for Trump.
Before Harris takes over as the Democratic nominee from President Joe Biden in July, NBC News Poll The survey found that 25% of black voters aged 18 to 49 support Trump over Biden.
Biden won 92% of black voters in the 2020 election. Pew Research Center Analysis: The prospect that Democrats could lose a quarter of voting-age black adults to Republicans has raised alarm bells.
According to the poll, Trump’s Extraordinary Strength For black voters, Trump’s support this election cycle may be driven in part by nostalgia for the pre-COVID economy that he led.
The rising cost of living has become a top concern for voters under the Biden-Harris administration as the U.S. economy makes a fragile recovery from high inflation after the pandemic.
While Harris is pitching herself as the economic relief candidate, her campaign is also working to shore up support among black voters.
Trump came under fire in July for criticizing Harris’ racial identity and calling her a “DEI hire” during an interview with an NABJ reporter, and for scolding the interviewer when asked about past comments he’d made about Black people. Democratic Party and Republican He said it was racist.
“It was the same old show: divisive and disrespectful,” Harris said of Trump’s appearance on NABJ on Tuesday. “Let me just say that the American people deserve better.”
