ATLANTA – Ahead of the presidential debate, both Republicans and Democrats are using the attention surrounding the high-profile matchup to further their efforts to reach black voters, with a particular emphasis on black men.
Former President Donald Trump‘s campaign deployed several high-profile black surrogates – Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, along with former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson – here on Wednesday for a Black American Business Leader Roundtable.
The event at Rocky’s Barbershop, a black-owned business in Atlanta, featured several local entrepreneurs, all men.
After each surrogate touted Trump’s performance with black voters to an audience made up mostly of reporters, Trump himself called and repeated his oft-criticized claim that his felony convictions have boosted his support among black Americans.
“Since that happened, black support, I think my representatives will tell you, black support has gone through the roof,” Trump said. “I think they were equated with the problems that they had.”
The Biden campaign was quick to target what it described as Trump’s “doubling down” on a racist stereotype.
“This may come as news to Trump, but Black and Latino voters want nothing to do with his racist stereotypes, and they know better than to engage with his lazy, shameful attempts at outreach,” said Biden campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika.
After the event, Rocky Jones, the venue’s owner, declined to say whether Trump or his black surrogates’ message was compelling enough to gain his support in November.
“I’m looking at it. I just want to hear both sides of the story and then I’ll make my decision,” Jones said. “I just want to do what’s right. I want to vote for the person who is going to help me and the community.”
On Wednesday evening, Donalds and Hunt will take their “Congress, Cognac and Cigars” tour to Fairburn, about 20 miles south of Atlanta, after an earlier stop in Philadelphia.
The intent of the event, according to organizers, is to “facilitate a real conversation about Black male voices, leadership and how they will impact the 2024 elections.”
Trump and his allies’ efforts to pursue Black voters, with a focus on men, accelerated this month with the launch of his campaign’s Black voters coalition group and a series of events to attract voters of color in Detroit and Philadelphia.
While Republicans remain hopeful that their efforts will translate into Trump picking up a larger share of the black vote in states like Georgia, some Democrats remain skeptical.
Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, said focus groups led by the group of Black voters in battleground states have not suggested a significant increase in support for Trump and accused his campaign of creating that narrative “out of thin air.”
“He has to be able to create this narrative about how much black voters love him and then at the end of the day, if black voters don’t show up for him, they can be outraged about voter fraud or whatever they claim is the reason he’s losing,” Shropshire said.
Atlanta-based Republican organizer Michaelah Montgomery, whose group, Conserve the Culture, has worked to increase black support for Trump, disagreed, arguing that Trump outreach events are crucial and create “community.” for newer black conservatives who are hesitant to voice their support for him.
“It’s important for black conservatives to know they have a community. Unfortunately, many black people feel that if they are conservative or lean toward conservative, they should be quiet about who they support because doing so would not be in line with societal norms.”
The outreach efforts in Atlanta are not entirely surprising: According to Georgia’s secretary of state, black voters are the second-largest voting bloc in the state, accounting for about 30% of active voters in Georgia.
But while Black voters in the state are overwhelmingly voting for Democrats, pro-Biden organizers are also holding outreach events, with the goal of “not leaving a single Black vote on the table in November.”
“It’s one of the more outsized demographics, in terms of the power that black voters will have, in deciding, again, not only who becomes president, but also as speaker of the House of Representatives,” says Quentin James, the founder and CEO of the Collective PAC, the largest political action committee supporting black candidates in the country.
The group supported Biden along with organizations representing Latino and Asian American voters when he visited the state in March.
The Collective PAC, along with several other organizations including 100 Black Men of America, plan to hold panels both before and after Thursday’s debate in which Black political commentators, politicians and business leaders will speak directly to voters “about the real-world implications of the debate material covered.”
Staff will also be available on site to assist participants who have not yet registered to vote, a crucial part of the event.
“We estimate there are more than 800,000 eligible but unregistered African Americans in Georgia,” James said. “So there is an opportunity to engage the people who are not registered.”
Meanwhile, another progressive group, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, plans to launch its Black men’s relationship organizing campaign at its debate watch party in Atlanta, aiming to specifically connect with a cohort of voters they say are often “left out of the conversation.”
“Black men are blamed after an election when results don’t go as people hoped, and they are scrutinized for whether and how they show up,” said Simran Jadavji, spokesperson for the New Georgia Project Action Fund. “But in the actual conversation, in the many, many months and years leading up to election cycles, they are not engaged in this way.”
People at the event, which will take part in a cigar lounge, will be provided with various texts on issues that organizers say are relevant to Black voters, including affordable housing, job creation and wage increases. Should Trump or Biden address these issues, we hope attendees will edit the texts and send them to their respective networks.
“We at the New Georgia Project Action Fund can only share a limited amount of information,” Jadavji said. “But if we have a team of 50 black men who then share within their networks, that is much more credible and trustworthy, and invites much more dialogue over the next few months.”
According to NBC News exit poll data, Trump won 11% of black voters in 2020, slightly more than the 9% he garnered in 2016.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
