President Biden’s re-election campaign is launching a targeted effort to shore up support from Black voters in two swing states as his backing from the traditionally blue voting bloc continues to falter.
The effort, centered around an ad that will run in Georgia and North Carolina, comes after a bad month for Biden that saw his likely general election opponent, former President Trump, make significant gains among Black voters. Democratic strategists and liberal political pundits have also warned that Black enthusiasm for Biden’s re-election was waning.
The ad, titled “Compete,” shows Patrick Brown, a Black farmer from North Carolina, praising Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for what he said was the administration’s investment in Black farming communities.
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President Biden speaks during an event at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.
“Joe Biden gets it. He is invested in us, getting us access to land, broadband, capital and infrastructure, so we can compete. It means a lot to have a president that listens. The laws the Biden-Harris administration has passed directly address our community,” Brown said.
According to a CNN poll released last month, Biden and Harris face significantly weaker support from Black voters despite winning the group by a large margin in 2020. It found that just 73% of Black voters favor Biden in the 2024 election, compared to the 92% he received in the last election.
The poll also found that 23% of Black voters favor Trump, a huge jump from the 8% support he received in 2020.
A separate New York Times poll, also released last month, found similar views from Black voters, including 22% support for Trump.
Former President Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Coralville, Iowa, on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Black voters are more disconnected from the Democratic Party than they have been in decades, frustrated with what many see as inaction on their political priorities and unhappy with President Biden, a candidate they helped lift to the White House just three years ago,” Times reporters Maya King and Lisa Lerer wrote in another report.
They were not alone in their assessment.
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Just weeks later, MSNBC host and liberal Black activist Al Sharpton warned, “There is a lack of enthusiasm among young voters, particularly young Black voters, the Biden campaign needs to take seriously. You need to really build a ground game movement from the bottom-up, rather than poo-poo it and be in denial.”
In a Politico report published after Thanksgiving, Democratic strategists warned that Black voters were questioning their loyalty to the Democrat Party, including one who told the outlet that some Black business owners were frustrated over its focus on racial issues.
Al Sharpton speaks during The Triumph Awards on Oct. 16, 2023 in New York City. (Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
“We’re treating them like their only issue is racial issues, and not all of us, but to some extent some of us have moved past that,” said Marcurius Byrd, who founded Young Democrats of the Central Midlands in South Carolina, and worked on Marianne Williamson’s campaign. He also said Black people were becoming “more educated.”
McKenzie Watson, a strategist who does advocacy for people with disabilities, said people were having a hard time and suggested the party should focus on fixing their home, and less so on other countries.
“We have people here who are suffering, who are struggling to keep a roof over their head,” she said. “We have people that are struggling to have food on the table for their kids, to buy a house. It’s a lot of struggling that is going on here in the nation.… I support Ukraine and my heart goes out to the people of Ukraine. But it’s kind of like you need to fix your home. Your people here are suffering here as well.”
President Biden speaks during a meeting of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In a statement, Biden campaign manager Quentin Fulks said the president’s administration was “delivering for Black Americans and rural communities” through investment in things like infrastructure, internet access, health care and pathways to land ownership.
“We are ensuring every voter understands the choice in front of them: While MAGA Republicans push an extreme agenda that would harm Black and rural communities and take our country backward, a second term for President Biden and Vice President Harris would build on the work they’ve already accomplished for Black Americans and continue to deliver on the issues that matter most to our community,” he added.
Fox News Digital asked the Biden campaign whether the push targeting Black voters was related to his flailing poll numbers among the voting bloc, but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News’ Hanna Panreck and Brian Flood contributed to this report.
