Former President Donald Trump received the support of no Black voters in a new Michigan survey.
The WDIV/Detroit News poll found that the presidential race is a dead heat between Trump, the Republican nominee, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee—with each receiving 41 percent of support.
Among the Black voters surveyed, 82.1 percent supported Harris, 11.5 percent backed independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and none supported Trump.
The poll surveyed 600 likely Michigan voters between July 22 and 24 and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. It is unclear how many Black people were included in the sample, but it is likely to be fewer than 100 people given that Black residents make up 14 percent of Michigan's population.
Other polls have indicated that Trump's gains among Black voters have eroded since President Joe Biden quit the presidential race on Sunday and quickly endorsed Harris—who is of Black and South Asian descent—to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Biden had faced calls to drop out after a disastrous debate performance raised fresh questions about the 81-year-old's age and ability to beat Trump, who survived an assassination attempt earlier this month, in November's election.
By Monday evening, Harris had
secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party's nominee. If she is officially nominated at the Democratic National Convention in August, Harris would be the first woman of color to top a major party's ticket.
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CNN poll conducted earlier this week found that Harris had the support of 78 percent of Black voters, while Trump had 15 percent. It surveyed 1,631 registered voters who had previously participated in CNN polls in April and June. One earlier poll had shown Trump, who won only 8 percent of the Black vote in 2020, had 23 percent of Black voters supporting him, while 73 percent backed Biden.
Black voters are a key Democratic constituency that helped propel Biden to the White House in 2020, with 92 percent voting for him over Trump.
In recent months, the Trump and Biden campaigns launched efforts to reach Black voters, as polling showed support for Biden among the demographic appeared to be slipping, especially in battleground states that could swing the election.
When asked for comment about the recent polling favoring Harris, Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign press secretary, directed
Newsweek to a
memo from the campaign's pollster Tony Fabrizio about what he branded the "Harris honeymoon."
"The honeymoon will be a manifestation of the wall-to-wall coverage Harris receives" from the media, he wrote. The coverage, he added, would be "largely positive and will certainly energize
Democrats," giving Harris a polling edge. Fabrizio said Democrats and the media "will try and tout these polls as proof that the race has changed. But the fundamentals of the race stay the same."
Newsweek has contacted the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment.
Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University,
previously told Newsweek that the "swift shift in support for Trump to Harris among Black voters tells you something about how fickle Trump's support was among these voters.
"Once they had a viable alternative that also happens to share their racial identity, they jumped ship from Trump almost instantly."
Black voters have showed enthusiasm for Harris' candidacy, with an estimated 90,000 Black women logging on for a video call organized by a group called #WinWithBlackWomen to support her campaign hours after Biden's announcement on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
Zoom typically maxes out at 1,000 participants, but the company increased the capacity to 40,000 participants for the call, the AP said, with another 50,000 participants streaming the meeting on other platforms.
The following night, a "Black Men for Harris" online streaming event co-hosted by #WinWithBlackMen drew tens of thousands who pledged to support Harris.
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