Poll: Democrats underperforming with black voters
Poll: Democrats underperforming with black voters
More than one-third of those surveyed expressed a desire for ‘someone else’ to run for president.
“Black voters are extremely anxious right now about what’s happening in the country,” said Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, citing the large percentages of survey participants who also expressed dissatisfaction with the economy and direction of the country. “It matters not the age category or people that live in rural or suburban communities. People are paying attention at a really high rate.”
The results of the survey come as Trump’s reelection campaign ramps up its efforts to garner black support. The president’s team has employed a number of efforts to build support in black communities — including
cash giveaways to black supporters. In 2016, Trump received 8 percent of the black vote, according to exit polls. BlackPAC found that 28 percent of the black voters in its survey reported either seeing Trump’s campaign ads, receiving mail paraphernalia or being directly contacted by the Trump campaign.
Still, the president and Republican Party as a whole remain very unpopular with black voters, as 76 percent of them disapprove of the president‘s performance and nearly 80 percent support his removal from office. Of the black voters who reported contact with the Trump campaign, 57 percent said it negatively influenced their willingness to vote for the president. Nearly a quarter of voters said defeating Trump was most important to them in November.
Black voters have long been considered the backbone of the Democratic Party due to the high volume and consistency with which they have turned out to vote for the party’s nominees. In 2016,
exit polls revealed that 88 percent of black voters supported Hillary Clinton. In 2012, Barack Obama got 93 percent of the black vote. Voters hold a 62 percent approval rating for Democrats in Congress, nearly 30 points above the
RealClearPolitics national average.