(TND) — President Joe Biden's reelection campaign launched a summer effort Wednesday to engage Black people, a critical part of his bloc of voters.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Philadelphia for the launch of “Black Voters for Biden-Harris.”
"We will continue to be aggressive, innovative, and thorough in our work to earn the support of the very voters who sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House in 2020 and will do so again in 2024,” said Quentin Fulks, Biden's principal deputy campaign manager, according to The Associated Press.
Biden still enjoys majority support from Black voters, but polls show the support has slipped from 2020 levels.
And his rival, former President Donald Trump, is hoping to pry away some of those Black voters. Last week, Trump held a rally in the Bronx.
The AP reported that Biden’s approval among Black adults has dropped from 94% when he started his term to just 55% as of March.
A Fox News poll published this month showed 72% support for Biden among Black voters, down from 79% before the 2020 election.
And a recent survey from the Pew Research Center showed that 77% of Black voters would pick Biden over Trump if the election were held now, whereas Biden won 92% of the Black vote in 2020.
“So, for Biden to get reelected, he basically needs everyone who voted for him last time to vote for him again,” University of Oklahoma politics professor Michael Crespin said Wednesday. “Trump obviously needs to increase support from last time. So, there's some, I think, fairly critical states.”
Pennsylvania, where the Biden camp is launching, the Black outreach campaign is one of them.
Georgia is another critical state that comes to mind, Crespin said.
“If I'm Biden, I'm concerned about losing support amongst black voters,” Crespin said.
There’s little doubt that Biden will win the majority of Black votes this fall, he said.
“I think that's not in question at all,” Crespin said. “But it's the margins. Right?”
If support or turnout drops in a few key states, it could be a problem for Biden.
The 2020 election was only decided by 41,000 votes across three states, Todd Belt, the Political Management program director at The George Washington University, previously told The National Desk.
Belt said there looks to be seven swing states in 2024: North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin.
We saw 67% voter turnout in 2020, the highest in the modern election era that includes 1960 onward.
Both sides will work to mobilize supporters in what’s shaping up to be another close race with a potentially high turnout.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the nation’s third-ever Black governor and a rising star in the Democratic party, joined Biden in Philadelphia to help rally support among Black voters.
He was asked earlier this month on NBC News about the erosion of support from Black voters.
“I think there's a frustration and a cynicism, and I think it’s longstanding,” Moore said.
He said Biden has worked to address “systemic challenges” faced by Black Americans.
The Pew Research Center found that 83% of Black registered voters side with Democrats.
And while 84% of Black voters, 50 and older, say they’d vote for Biden now, that drops to 68% among Black voters, ages 18-49.
That leaves 29% of younger Black voters leaning for Trump.
Crespin said Biden’s campaign will probably try to convince young voters, possibly first-time voters, to join him. And it will try to remind older Black voters why they supported him before.
Crespin said Biden will also try and make his case to Black voters that Trump is a worse alternative for them on the issues they care about.
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