Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris addresses members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, September 17, 2024.
Piroschka Van De Wouw | Reuters
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday laid out how her economic proposals could especially help young black men, a key Democratic voting bloc that polls show Republican former President Donald Trump gaining ground in this election cycle.
“I think it’s very important that we don’t operate under the assumption that black men are in anybody’s pocket,” Harris said in a sit-down interview with a panel from the National Association of Black Journalists. “I’m working to win the vote, not assuming 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 Black men under 50 support Trump over Harris.
To win those votes, Harris focuses on an economic argument. At NABJ, she described launching a “black male-focused economic opportunity tour” earlier this year before running for president.
She also pointed to her work “getting billions more dollars” to community banks to expand access to startup capital.
“We have so many entrepreneurs in the community who don’t have access to capital, but they have great ideas, incredible work ethic, aspirations, ambitions, dreams…but they don’t have the relationships, necessary” to get funding or grow a small business, Harris said.
The Democratic presidential candidate cited proposals such as the $50,000 tax credit for small businesses and eliminating the medical debt from credit scores — both of which he believes would target historic economic disparities in black communities.
“When they do better financially, we all do better,” Harris said.
Proposals like these could help Harris address two Democratic vulnerabilities this election cycle: public perceptions of the economy and young blacks who are leaning toward voting for Trump.
Before Harris takes over the Democratic ticket from President Joe Biden in July, NBC News poll found that 25% of black voters polled ages 18 to 49 favored Trump over Biden.
Biden won 92% of black voters in the 2020 election, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. The prospect that Democrats could lose a quarter of prime voting age Black adults to a Republican set off alarm bells.
Polls show Trump’s unusual strength with black voters this election cycle could be due in part to nostalgia for the pre-Covid economy he presided over.
During the Biden-Harris administration, the high cost of living became the biggest concern of voters as the US economy precariously recovered from hyperinflation in the wake of the pandemic.
As Harris works to present herself as a candidate for economic relief, her campaign is simultaneously working to shore up support among black voters.
During his meeting with NABJ reporters in July, Trump drew backlash for questioning Harris’ racial identity and calling her a “DEI hire.” He also rebuked interviewers for their questions about his earlier remarks about Black people, who both Democrats and Republicans they said they were racist.
“It was the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect,” Harris said Tuesday of Trump’s NABJ appearance. “And let me just say, the American people deserve better.”
