Biden’s urgent task: Reengaging Black voters
It’s no exaggeration to say that Black voters put President Joe Biden in the White House.
After disappointing fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Biden’s 2020 presidential bid was nearly moribund. But then a blowout win in South Carolina – where a majority of Democratic primary voters are Black – put him on a fast track to his party’s nomination. Nine months later, he won the general election against former President Donald Trump with 92% of the Black vote. Elected alongside him was the United States’ first Black vice president, Kamala Harris.
“I stand here today as your president because of you,” Mr. Biden said Monday, speaking at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where a white supremacist killed nine people in 2015. “And I’ve done my best to honor your trust.”
Lately, however,, fewer than two-thirds of Black voters said they planned to support Mr. Biden in this year’s presidential election, with 20% saying they planned to vote for someone other than him or former President Trump. That followed an October of battleground states that showed Mr. Trump garnering 22% of the Black vote, a massive leap from the 8% he won three years ago – and, if those numbers wind up being even somewhat accurate, a potential political earthquake for Democrats.
