August 23, 2024 • 18 mins
For decades, the Democratic Party has counted on support from Black voters. But former President Donald Trump has tried to leverage voter dissatisfaction with Democrats to bite into the party’s edge with that key demographic. And for a while, it seemed to be working – until the first Black woman to lead a major presidential ticket shook up the race.
On today’s Big Take DC podcast, host Saleha Mohsin hears from voters and speaks to Bloomberg reporters Akayla Gardner and Hadriana Lowenkron about how Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has flipped the script for Trump, and for Democrats attempting to reverse President Joe Biden’s losses with Black Americans who were key to his win in 2020.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thursday Night, Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the presidential nomination
from her party.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written
in the greatest nation on Earth.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
I accept your nomination to.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Be president to re United States of America.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Her speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago captain
astounding month in American politics. With Harris at the top
of the ticket, the Democrats hope to re energize their party.
Poles still show a neck and neck race, so both
parties are pulling hard for each and every vote, and
one group that's critical for either party's path to victory
(00:53):
is block voters. For decades, Democrats have counted on this
voting block, but according to recent polling and Bloomberg reporting,
many feel taken for granted by the party, and that's
something that the Trump campaign has been trying to leverage.
For a while, it seemed to be working. Polling showed
Trump chipping away at the Democratic hold on that key constituency,
(01:15):
but with Harris as their presidential nominee, Democrats might be
mounting a comeback. Today on the show, I'm joined by
Bloomberg Politics, reporters a Kayla Gardner and Hadrianna Lohenkron who
have been on the campaign trail tracking how each candidate
has tried to appeal to black communities around the country,
and we hear the voices of black voters about how
(01:37):
it's all landing. From Bloomberg's Washington Bureau. This is the
Big Take DC podcast. I'm Salaiah Mosen.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Over the less few cycles. Really since Obama, Trump, who
of course has been on the ticket for the last
three cycles, has incrementally bitten into Democrat's edge with black voters.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Akayla Gardner covers politics for Bloomberg News.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
It's not a huge swing, but it is a couple
percentage points, and I think even those margins still worry
Democrats because this is just a block that has known
to be loyal that they rely on, particularly in metropolitan
cities like Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, like Detroit, and Michigan, like Atlanta,
and Georgia.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia all important swing states. A Washington Post
analysis found that low turnout among black voters in places
like Michigan and Wisconsin had an impact on twenty sixteen.
That higher turnout in those key states could have helped
Clinton win the electoral college. That's a big contrast to
twenty twenty, when black voters in Georgia were keda Biden's victory.
(02:51):
They made up a third of eligible voters in the state,
and eighty eight percent of them voted for Biden, making
him the first Democrat in decades to flip Georgia. Biden
won there by less than one percent of the overall vote.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Such small margins and those percentages do matter.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Historically, the Democratic Party's reliance on black voters has been
a pretty safe bet. Republican presidential candidates usually only attract
a small percentage of black voters. The last time a
Republican broke into the double digits was two thousand and four,
with George W. Bush winning eleven percent of the block.
But that's starting to change. Akaila says. Black voters around
(03:31):
the country have told her that part of this shift
seems to be stemming from disappointment in the Biden presidency,
the feeling that he let them down.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
That he hadn't really delivered on promises that he ran
on in twenty twenty, Those include forgiving student debt. Of course,
his plan was overthrown by the Supreme Court last year.
That also includes criminal justice reform. After we saw those
widespread national protests after the death of George Floyd.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
We heard from one man in Georgia, Azada Madi, who
was once a Democratic voter but now serves as a
state delegate in the local Republican party. He feels the
difficult economic reality under Democrats actually started before Biden. After
voting Blue in two thousand and eight, Azad found himself
moving towards the Republican Party by the end of Obama's
(04:18):
second term.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
In the moment you actually start looking at policy and
the outcomes of the socio economic policies of the Democrat Party,
that you find in general that the outcomes have not
been beneficial to our communities.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Economic disillusionment has provided an opening for the Trump campaign.
They told Bloomberg back in December that this election they'd
be making their strongest effort yet to target this block.
Just eight percent of black voters went for Trump in
twenty sixteen. Accounting for a margin of error and discrepancies
among exit polls, Trump may have gained as many as
(04:57):
four percentage points among black voters and t twenty twenty
to land at twelve percent. As of December, his campaign
was hoping to get a quarter of the vote twenty
five percent. Trump promoted his efforts to secure more funding
for historically black colleges, and he leaned into his economic
message hard, like in his address at the Republican National
(05:19):
Convention last month, we.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Had no inflation, soaring incomes. We're going No's.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Nobody can believe it. You can't believe what.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Happened if you look at black voters as a whole.
I think most of the ship that we're seeing is
happening amongst black men, and they think that is specifically
because of economic issues.
Speaker 6 (05:41):
A lot of the messaging that had been working in
terms of Trump and other Republican leaders is this idea
that the Democratic Party has taken black voters for granted.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
That's Hadrianna Lowencron, who's been covering Trump on the campaign trail.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
At the events I've been at. From my conversations with
the audience, they're tired with the state of the economy,
for instance, they're worried about crime and policing.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
After Trump's criminal indictments. He also tried to connect to
black Americans who felt disillusioned with the criminal justice system.
Here he is at the Black Conservative Federation's gala in February.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
The black people are so much on my side now
because they see what's happening to me happens to them.
Does that make sense.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Bloomberg's reporting found that Trump's economic message is resonating.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
There are a lot of people who are saying it's
not Trump himself. There are things that he says, There
are issues with his personality that I am not fully behind.
But I want a difference in terms of my four
oh one K and I want to be able to
afford my groceries.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
One of those people is Bishop Everett Spencer, who preaches
at a church outside Atlanta. He attended an event called
Congress Cigars and KGNAC back in June, where two of
Trump's allies addressed a crowd of mostly black men at
an Atlanta cigar lounge. Here's what he told Blue Mberg
reporter Stephanie Laie at the event.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
For the Democrats to say that they are the already
of the poor and additional franchise these policies that form
these kind of economic situations that hurt those communities the.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Worst, he said. He doesn't agree with everything Trump says
or does, but on the key issues that matter, Trump
is his guy.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
We thought his policies were good or America, good for
his black community and helped America flourish, and we would
like to get back to that.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
The Trump campaign and at surrogates have hosted events like
this in different parts of the country trying to appeal
to black voters.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
He's been relying on black representatives such as Representative Baron
Donald of Florida, Senator Tim Scott.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
The GOP we can bring hope to the place where
there used to be a desert.
Speaker 6 (07:49):
These are people who have been kind of trapesing the
country with him when he's going to different rallies, and
they're kind of hosting their own events, sometimes at barber shops.
I was at the RNC and Milwaukee. They had a
specific event for black Republican mayors and the goal was also,
I think, just to serve as a welcoming space for
(08:10):
black conservatives, which is a smaller demographic.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And their narrative seemed to stick.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
In earlier polling of this election cycle, Trump was attracting
more black voters than he had in his previous runs.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
In an ABC News Washington Post IPSOS poll released in July,
seventeen percent of Block voters said they'd vote for Trump
in November. Again. That's up from eight percent in twenty
sixteen and somewhere between eight and twelve percent and twenty twenty.
Azad Amadi again, I.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Remember a time when it would be confrontational to grab
a brother that was sitting outside of a local liquor
store and say, I'm a Republican and I'd like to
talk to you about voting for a Republican. And today
I'm telling you that it will turn into an hour
long conversation outside of my local convenience door. There is
a very large degree of dissatisfaction with the Biden administration.
(09:06):
That's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But then the entire race was turned on its head.
Biden dropped out, and Trump's goal to sway black voters
came up against a historic development, Kamala Harris becoming the
Democratic presidential nominee, the first black woman to ever get
a major party presidential nomination. How Harris flipped the script.
(09:30):
That's after the break back in July, when Joe Biden
passed the torch to his vice president Kamala Harris. Some
in the Democratic party worried that she'd be vulnerable to
the same criticisms that Biden faced, particularly when it comes
to the economy. But even before Harris took over the ticket,
(09:54):
Akila Gardner told me she was trying to make inroads
with the black voters who were turning away from Biden.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
This was a huge part of her role really on
Biden's campaign was speaking to this constituency. She is, of
course a black woman. She also attended an HBCU Howard University,
so we saw her consistently speaking two crowds of HBCUs.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Our nation, as it always has is counting on you
to energize, to organize, and to mobilize.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Harris went on what she called an economic Opportunity tour
around the swing States. She addressed crowds of mostly black
voters talking about the economy in discussions moderated by people
like Steve Harvey.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
This administration needs to get the word out of what
they've actually doing and what they're actually accomplishing, so we.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Can stop all this foolishness about what you're doing for
black people.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And when Biden stepped down and Harris announced her intend
to seek the Democratic nomination, many black voters sprung into action.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
We saw this zoom with an organization called Win with
Black Women that had over forty thousand participants who got on,
raised more than a million dollars and really spurred many
different iterations of copycats.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
In the latest NPR PBS News Maris poll from early August,
Harris has pulled ahead of Trump, largely thanks to a
surge among black voters. When she first announced her candidacy,
she had a twenty three point lead with them. Now
she's ahead by fifty four points.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
They seem to be open to giving her a chance,
And something that I'm hearing frankly from a lot of
folks is her campaign feels a lot like President Barack
Obama's in two thousand and eight. That the sort of
momentum and energy and hopefulness that people have sort of
mirrors that, particularly because she is a historic candidate. She
is the first black woman Asian woman to be a
nominee for a major party.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Stephanie Bethea owns a wine shop and tasting room called
The Purple Corkscrew outside Atlanta. She was a Democratic dell
get for Obama in twenty eight and twenty twelve, but
she didn't run this year.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Because I thought, I it's gonna be boring. I didn't
realize how down I was and how down everyone was.
I didn't know if people were going to vote or not.
And so I think with the ballot change and everyone's excited,
I just want to make sure that people keep that
energy up.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
When Harris took over the ticket, Stephanie said that she
hosted a mobilization event at her shop. She was expecting
about seventeen women to come.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
It was just a raw rock session that we literally
put together in twenty four hours and got fifty women here,
mainly women. At that time. There was no swag, no
buttons or anything. And one lady came in she had
literally printed out on a piece of paper Kamala Harris
for President and safety pinned to her back.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
That energy and excitement is palpable at Harris's rallies and appearances. Akila,
what does it feel like to be at a Harris rally?
Speaker 5 (13:02):
It feels a lot different than a Biden rally. I
will say that for sure. She's playing Beyonce songs, pop songs,
eighty songs, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston. Her crowds are typically
dancing before she comes out and singing.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Even the DNC roll call turned into a little John
rap concert.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Where is it, gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
We are here tonight tonight.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
On the Trump side, when I'm talking to people, there's
a lot of focus on Okay, we want to return
to twenty sixteen to twenty twenty, we want to return
to how the economy was, etcetera, etcetera. And here it's
like we're doing something new. We're bringing the country forward.
This is a new chapter. And I think that also
in and of itself, kind of sparks a lot of
optimism and enthusiasm.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The Harris campaign is hoping to ride that energy until November,
but it's still shaping up to be a close race.
Trump has remained on the offensive when it comes to
knocking the Biden Harris economic record, and that's still the
biggest issue driving many voters. But Trump has also started
to acknowledge some of his vulnerabilities. Here he is at
(14:21):
mar A Lago speaking to a group of reporters a
few weeks ago.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I seem to be doing very well with black males.
This is according to Paul's as you know, it's possible
that it won't do as well with black women.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
He's had some gaffes with black voters since Harris took
over the ticket. Notably, there was his appearance at the
National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago last month. Hedriana,
who's a member of NABJ, was in the room.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
This happened pretty last minute in terms of when it
was officially announced, and so when he finally came out,
the audience was apprehensive, and almost immediately he kind of
attacked the ABC reporter who was asking the question, listing
all of these things he had done. You have told
four congressmen women of Coller who were American citizens, to
go back to where they came from.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
You've had dinner with a white supremacist at.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Your marologue resort.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
Based on that, why should black voters kind of trust you.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I don't think I've ever been asked a question so
in such a horrible manner.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
A first question from there, Adrianna says, the interview went
off the rails. Trump went back and forth with the reporters.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Coming from the border. Are millions and millions of people
that happened to be taking black jobs? You had the
best what exactly is a black job? Sir, a black
job is anybody that has a job, that's what it is,
anybody that has a heart.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And he questioned Harris's racial identity.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
I didn't know she was black until a number of
years ago when she happened to turn black, and now
she wants to be known as black. So I don't
know is she Indian or.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
Is she black. Previously, he has done these types of
events with more conservative voters who already would have bought
into his messaging, and so that was a very high
risk opportunity for him, but it did not end up
panning out.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
In the time since the NABJ event, Trump hasn't changed
his attack, despite what he says his advisors have asked.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Please, sir, don't get personal.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Talk about policy. Let me ask you about that. At
a rally in North Carolina this week, he asked the
crowd whether he should listen to those advisors and stick
to policy or keep up the personal attacks.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Should I get personal?
Speaker 4 (16:36):
My advisors are fired.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
It's a strategy that may rile up his base at
a rally, but Akila says it could be risky when
it comes to broadening his appeal.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
There was an Axios story about a focus group in Wisconsin,
and all of the respondents said they did not like
Trump's attacks on Harris's identity. And it's been interesting because
the Heroes Came Paign has in some ways responded to it,
but not Harris herself or even her running mate Tim Waltz.
And I don't think that they feel like they have to.
(17:08):
They think that Trump can walk into his own trap
in some ways when he does things like this.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
In her speech to the DNC Tuesday night, former First
Lady Michelle Obama gave a direct response to the comment
that Trump made about quote unquote black jobs. It was
an example of what a Kayla talked about times when
Trump's language can backfire.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Who's gonna tell him that the job he's currently seeking
might just be one of those black jobs.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Thanks for listening to The Big Take DC podcast from
Bloomberg News. I'm Salaamosen. This episode was produced by Julia Press.
It was mixed by Robert Williams, edited by Aaron Edwards
and Laura Davison. It was fact checked by Alex Sugia.
A special thanks to Stephanie Lai for sharing her reporting.
Wendy Benjaminson and Elizabeth Ponso provide editor real direction for
(18:00):
the show. Naomi Shaven and Kim Gidtleson are our senior producers.
Nicole Beemster Borer is our executive producer. Stage Bauman is
Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Please follow and review The Big
Take DC wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps new
listeners find the show.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thursday Night, Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the presidential nomination
from her party.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written
in the greatest nation on Earth.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
I accept your nomination to.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Be president to re United States of America.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Her speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago captain
astounding month in American politics. With Harris at the top
of the ticket, the Democrats hope to re energize their party.
Poles still show a neck and neck race, so both
parties are pulling hard for each and every vote, and
one group that's critical for either party's path to victory
(00:53):
is block voters. For decades, Democrats have counted on this
voting block, but according to recent polling and Bloomberg reporting,
many feel taken for granted by the party, and that's
something that the Trump campaign has been trying to leverage.
For a while, it seemed to be working. Polling showed
Trump chipping away at the Democratic hold on that key constituency,
(01:15):
but with Harris as their presidential nominee, Democrats might be
mounting a comeback. Today on the show, I'm joined by
Bloomberg Politics, reporters a Kayla Gardner and Hadrianna Lohenkron who
have been on the campaign trail tracking how each candidate
has tried to appeal to black communities around the country,
and we hear the voices of black voters about how
(01:37):
it's all landing. From Bloomberg's Washington Bureau. This is the
Big Take DC podcast. I'm Salaiah Mosen.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Over the less few cycles. Really since Obama, Trump, who
of course has been on the ticket for the last
three cycles, has incrementally bitten into Democrat's edge with black voters.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Akayla Gardner covers politics for Bloomberg News.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
It's not a huge swing, but it is a couple
percentage points, and I think even those margins still worry
Democrats because this is just a block that has known
to be loyal that they rely on, particularly in metropolitan
cities like Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, like Detroit, and Michigan, like Atlanta,
and Georgia.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia all important swing states. A Washington Post
analysis found that low turnout among black voters in places
like Michigan and Wisconsin had an impact on twenty sixteen.
That higher turnout in those key states could have helped
Clinton win the electoral college. That's a big contrast to
twenty twenty, when black voters in Georgia were keda Biden's victory.
(02:51):
They made up a third of eligible voters in the state,
and eighty eight percent of them voted for Biden, making
him the first Democrat in decades to flip Georgia. Biden
won there by less than one percent of the overall vote.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Such small margins and those percentages do matter.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Historically, the Democratic Party's reliance on black voters has been
a pretty safe bet. Republican presidential candidates usually only attract
a small percentage of black voters. The last time a
Republican broke into the double digits was two thousand and four,
with George W. Bush winning eleven percent of the block.
But that's starting to change. Akaila says. Black voters around
(03:31):
the country have told her that part of this shift
seems to be stemming from disappointment in the Biden presidency,
the feeling that he let them down.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
That he hadn't really delivered on promises that he ran
on in twenty twenty, Those include forgiving student debt. Of course,
his plan was overthrown by the Supreme Court last year.
That also includes criminal justice reform. After we saw those
widespread national protests after the death of George Floyd.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
We heard from one man in Georgia, Azada Madi, who
was once a Democratic voter but now serves as a
state delegate in the local Republican party. He feels the
difficult economic reality under Democrats actually started before Biden. After
voting Blue in two thousand and eight, Azad found himself
moving towards the Republican Party by the end of Obama's
(04:18):
second term.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
In the moment you actually start looking at policy and
the outcomes of the socio economic policies of the Democrat Party,
that you find in general that the outcomes have not
been beneficial to our communities.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Economic disillusionment has provided an opening for the Trump campaign.
They told Bloomberg back in December that this election they'd
be making their strongest effort yet to target this block.
Just eight percent of black voters went for Trump in
twenty sixteen. Accounting for a margin of error and discrepancies
among exit polls, Trump may have gained as many as
(04:57):
four percentage points among black voters and t twenty twenty
to land at twelve percent. As of December, his campaign
was hoping to get a quarter of the vote twenty
five percent. Trump promoted his efforts to secure more funding
for historically black colleges, and he leaned into his economic
message hard, like in his address at the Republican National
(05:19):
Convention last month, we.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Had no inflation, soaring incomes. We're going No's.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Nobody can believe it. You can't believe what.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Happened if you look at black voters as a whole.
I think most of the ship that we're seeing is
happening amongst black men, and they think that is specifically
because of economic issues.
Speaker 6 (05:41):
A lot of the messaging that had been working in
terms of Trump and other Republican leaders is this idea
that the Democratic Party has taken black voters for granted.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
That's Hadrianna Lowencron, who's been covering Trump on the campaign trail.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
At the events I've been at. From my conversations with
the audience, they're tired with the state of the economy,
for instance, they're worried about crime and policing.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
After Trump's criminal indictments. He also tried to connect to
black Americans who felt disillusioned with the criminal justice system.
Here he is at the Black Conservative Federation's gala in February.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
The black people are so much on my side now
because they see what's happening to me happens to them.
Does that make sense.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Bloomberg's reporting found that Trump's economic message is resonating.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
There are a lot of people who are saying it's
not Trump himself. There are things that he says, There
are issues with his personality that I am not fully behind.
But I want a difference in terms of my four
oh one K and I want to be able to
afford my groceries.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
One of those people is Bishop Everett Spencer, who preaches
at a church outside Atlanta. He attended an event called
Congress Cigars and KGNAC back in June, where two of
Trump's allies addressed a crowd of mostly black men at
an Atlanta cigar lounge. Here's what he told Blue Mberg
reporter Stephanie Laie at the event.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
For the Democrats to say that they are the already
of the poor and additional franchise these policies that form
these kind of economic situations that hurt those communities the.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Worst, he said. He doesn't agree with everything Trump says
or does, but on the key issues that matter, Trump
is his guy.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
We thought his policies were good or America, good for
his black community and helped America flourish, and we would
like to get back to that.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
The Trump campaign and at surrogates have hosted events like
this in different parts of the country trying to appeal
to black voters.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
He's been relying on black representatives such as Representative Baron
Donald of Florida, Senator Tim Scott.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
The GOP we can bring hope to the place where
there used to be a desert.
Speaker 6 (07:49):
These are people who have been kind of trapesing the
country with him when he's going to different rallies, and
they're kind of hosting their own events, sometimes at barber shops.
I was at the RNC and Milwaukee. They had a
specific event for black Republican mayors and the goal was also,
I think, just to serve as a welcoming space for
(08:10):
black conservatives, which is a smaller demographic.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And their narrative seemed to stick.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
In earlier polling of this election cycle, Trump was attracting
more black voters than he had in his previous runs.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
In an ABC News Washington Post IPSOS poll released in July,
seventeen percent of Block voters said they'd vote for Trump
in November. Again. That's up from eight percent in twenty
sixteen and somewhere between eight and twelve percent and twenty twenty.
Azad Amadi again, I.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Remember a time when it would be confrontational to grab
a brother that was sitting outside of a local liquor
store and say, I'm a Republican and I'd like to
talk to you about voting for a Republican. And today
I'm telling you that it will turn into an hour
long conversation outside of my local convenience door. There is
a very large degree of dissatisfaction with the Biden administration.
(09:06):
That's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But then the entire race was turned on its head.
Biden dropped out, and Trump's goal to sway black voters
came up against a historic development, Kamala Harris becoming the
Democratic presidential nominee, the first black woman to ever get
a major party presidential nomination. How Harris flipped the script.
(09:30):
That's after the break back in July, when Joe Biden
passed the torch to his vice president Kamala Harris. Some
in the Democratic party worried that she'd be vulnerable to
the same criticisms that Biden faced, particularly when it comes
to the economy. But even before Harris took over the ticket,
(09:54):
Akila Gardner told me she was trying to make inroads
with the black voters who were turning away from Biden.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
This was a huge part of her role really on
Biden's campaign was speaking to this constituency. She is, of
course a black woman. She also attended an HBCU Howard University,
so we saw her consistently speaking two crowds of HBCUs.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Our nation, as it always has is counting on you
to energize, to organize, and to mobilize.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Harris went on what she called an economic Opportunity tour
around the swing States. She addressed crowds of mostly black
voters talking about the economy in discussions moderated by people
like Steve Harvey.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
This administration needs to get the word out of what
they've actually doing and what they're actually accomplishing, so we.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Can stop all this foolishness about what you're doing for
black people.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And when Biden stepped down and Harris announced her intend
to seek the Democratic nomination, many black voters sprung into action.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
We saw this zoom with an organization called Win with
Black Women that had over forty thousand participants who got on,
raised more than a million dollars and really spurred many
different iterations of copycats.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
In the latest NPR PBS News Maris poll from early August,
Harris has pulled ahead of Trump, largely thanks to a
surge among black voters. When she first announced her candidacy,
she had a twenty three point lead with them. Now
she's ahead by fifty four points.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
They seem to be open to giving her a chance,
And something that I'm hearing frankly from a lot of
folks is her campaign feels a lot like President Barack
Obama's in two thousand and eight. That the sort of
momentum and energy and hopefulness that people have sort of
mirrors that, particularly because she is a historic candidate. She
is the first black woman Asian woman to be a
nominee for a major party.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Stephanie Bethea owns a wine shop and tasting room called
The Purple Corkscrew outside Atlanta. She was a Democratic dell
get for Obama in twenty eight and twenty twelve, but
she didn't run this year.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Because I thought, I it's gonna be boring. I didn't
realize how down I was and how down everyone was.
I didn't know if people were going to vote or not.
And so I think with the ballot change and everyone's excited,
I just want to make sure that people keep that
energy up.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
When Harris took over the ticket, Stephanie said that she
hosted a mobilization event at her shop. She was expecting
about seventeen women to come.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
It was just a raw rock session that we literally
put together in twenty four hours and got fifty women here,
mainly women. At that time. There was no swag, no
buttons or anything. And one lady came in she had
literally printed out on a piece of paper Kamala Harris
for President and safety pinned to her back.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
That energy and excitement is palpable at Harris's rallies and appearances. Akila,
what does it feel like to be at a Harris rally?
Speaker 5 (13:02):
It feels a lot different than a Biden rally. I
will say that for sure. She's playing Beyonce songs, pop songs,
eighty songs, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston. Her crowds are typically
dancing before she comes out and singing.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Even the DNC roll call turned into a little John
rap concert.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Where is it, gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
We are here tonight tonight.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
On the Trump side, when I'm talking to people, there's
a lot of focus on Okay, we want to return
to twenty sixteen to twenty twenty, we want to return
to how the economy was, etcetera, etcetera. And here it's
like we're doing something new. We're bringing the country forward.
This is a new chapter. And I think that also
in and of itself, kind of sparks a lot of
optimism and enthusiasm.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The Harris campaign is hoping to ride that energy until November,
but it's still shaping up to be a close race.
Trump has remained on the offensive when it comes to
knocking the Biden Harris economic record, and that's still the
biggest issue driving many voters. But Trump has also started
to acknowledge some of his vulnerabilities. Here he is at
(14:21):
mar A Lago speaking to a group of reporters a
few weeks ago.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I seem to be doing very well with black males.
This is according to Paul's as you know, it's possible
that it won't do as well with black women.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
He's had some gaffes with black voters since Harris took
over the ticket. Notably, there was his appearance at the
National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago last month. Hedriana,
who's a member of NABJ, was in the room.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
This happened pretty last minute in terms of when it
was officially announced, and so when he finally came out,
the audience was apprehensive, and almost immediately he kind of
attacked the ABC reporter who was asking the question, listing
all of these things he had done. You have told
four congressmen women of Coller who were American citizens, to
go back to where they came from.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
You've had dinner with a white supremacist at.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Your marologue resort.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
Based on that, why should black voters kind of trust you.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I don't think I've ever been asked a question so
in such a horrible manner.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
A first question from there, Adrianna says, the interview went
off the rails. Trump went back and forth with the reporters.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Coming from the border. Are millions and millions of people
that happened to be taking black jobs? You had the
best what exactly is a black job? Sir, a black
job is anybody that has a job, that's what it is,
anybody that has a heart.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And he questioned Harris's racial identity.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
I didn't know she was black until a number of
years ago when she happened to turn black, and now
she wants to be known as black. So I don't
know is she Indian or.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
Is she black. Previously, he has done these types of
events with more conservative voters who already would have bought
into his messaging, and so that was a very high
risk opportunity for him, but it did not end up
panning out.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
In the time since the NABJ event, Trump hasn't changed
his attack, despite what he says his advisors have asked.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Please, sir, don't get personal.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Talk about policy. Let me ask you about that. At
a rally in North Carolina this week, he asked the
crowd whether he should listen to those advisors and stick
to policy or keep up the personal attacks.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Should I get personal?
Speaker 4 (16:36):
My advisors are fired.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
It's a strategy that may rile up his base at
a rally, but Akila says it could be risky when
it comes to broadening his appeal.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
There was an Axios story about a focus group in Wisconsin,
and all of the respondents said they did not like
Trump's attacks on Harris's identity. And it's been interesting because
the Heroes Came Paign has in some ways responded to it,
but not Harris herself or even her running mate Tim Waltz.
And I don't think that they feel like they have to.
(17:08):
They think that Trump can walk into his own trap
in some ways when he does things like this.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
In her speech to the DNC Tuesday night, former First
Lady Michelle Obama gave a direct response to the comment
that Trump made about quote unquote black jobs. It was
an example of what a Kayla talked about times when
Trump's language can backfire.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Who's gonna tell him that the job he's currently seeking
might just be one of those black jobs.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Thanks for listening to The Big Take DC podcast from
Bloomberg News. I'm Salaamosen. This episode was produced by Julia Press.
It was mixed by Robert Williams, edited by Aaron Edwards
and Laura Davison. It was fact checked by Alex Sugia.
A special thanks to Stephanie Lai for sharing her reporting.
Wendy Benjaminson and Elizabeth Ponso provide editor real direction for
(18:00):
the show. Naomi Shaven and Kim Gidtleson are our senior producers.
Nicole Beemster Borer is our executive producer. Stage Bauman is
Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Please follow and review The Big
Take DC wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps new
listeners find the show.
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