Black support for President Donald Trump is nearly twice what campaign official believe it needs to be for Trump to win reelection, according to a new survey.
The poll, taken right after the Republican National Convention, found that 20% of black voters said they would vote for Trump in November.
Nearly 75% of black voters said the same of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. But Biden’s support is much lower than it has been in past months, according to the John Zogby Strategies/EMI Research Solutions analysis.
Already facing scrutiny for a series of controversial comments that appeared to take for granted the black vote, Biden’s dropping support among the African–American community could be the result, in part, of the continued violence in Democratic-run cities.
Already, Biden’s numbers among young black voters are more than a dozen points below what former President Barack Obama’s were in 2008, and nine points below what Obama’s were in 2012.
“Biden should be pleased with his support among Democrats, women, and Hispanics but a lead of 75%-20% among blacks can spell real trouble,” noted the survey.
“A Democrat needs 90%+ and a high turnout among blacks. Could it be that Trump’s law and order message is hitting home among blacks who are worried about demonstrations getting out of control?” it wondered.
Perhaps taking their cues from the Democrats’ refusal to acknowledge the violence, Republicans made a strong appeal to minorities during the convention, with black conservatives, legal immigrants and victims of the Left-driven violence figuring prominently into the slate of inspiring speakers.
Trump’s recent gains among black voters prove that the RNC successfully won over hesitant voters, according to Marc Thiessen, a fellow with the American Enterprise Institute.
The many success stories shared during the convention helped destroy the Democratic narrative that Trump is a racist, because viewers were able to see Trump’s records on display for themselves, Thiessen wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post.
“This is a side of the president that most Americans are never shown—and so Republicans used their stage to show it,” Thiessen wrote.
“They made a sustained, four-day push for African American votes, and the votes of every American who cares about racial justice,” he added.
Paris Dennard, the Trump campaign’s senior communications adviser for black media affairs, agreed with Thiessen and said Trump’s growing support among African Americans iss’t surprising given the difference between the two parties’ messages.
“After watching both political conventions make their best case, black Americans are giving President Trump a second look, and many a first look, because they are learning more about his record of achievement and Joe Biden’s old and new policies that work against the black community coupled with Biden’s consistently offensive bigoted comments,” Dennard told the Washington Examiner.
