With Michigan’s primary election taking place Tuesday, Feb. 27, the White House has taken notice of recent polling numbers that highlight the dwindling support for the democratic ticket of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, especially among Black voters.
Even with independent visits to Michigan by both the president and vice president in recent weeks, Biden’s current approval rating is hovering around roughly 40 percent – the second-worst only to Jimmy Carter among first-term candidates in their third year of office.
To help combat the trend, the Biden-Harris administration has employed the services of three Black Metro Detroit residents to help turn the tides of their campaign.
Jasmine Harris, Alyssa Bradley, and Eddie McDonald began their service with the current administration recently, operating as the Black Media Director, Michigan Campaign Manager, and Senior Advisor, respectively.
“The president and vice president are not taking folks’ votes for granted, but are instead working to reach voters where they’re at and ensure they understand all of the considerable ways they have delivered for Black Americans: Black unemployment at historic lows, Black entrepreneurship is at the highest rate we’ve seen in years, the administration has invested billions in supporting HBCUs, and during the pandemic, Black child poverty was sliced in half, Jasmine Harris said.
“I am truly proud to be from Metro Detroit. There’s an energy that we carry with us that I am thankful to be able to bring to the campaign.”
The trio’s goal is to continually highlight to voters the work that the Biden-Harris administration has done. The hope is that they, along with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer serving as the co-chair of Biden’s 2024 election campaign, can counteract the narrative that Biden isn’t doing enough to convince Black voters that he’s worth their vote.
“As Governor Whitmer has said, President Biden and Vice President Harris truly have Michiganders’ backs,” McDonald said.
“We are working to ensure they get another four years to continue doing so and finish the job. Continue helping to create jobs for Black families, continue appointing diverse federal judges, continue lowering the cost of prescription drugs for struggling families, and continue addressing the racial wealth gap by forgiving millions in student loan debt for so many.”
In the 2020 presidential election, Biden won Michigan 50.6 percent to 47.8 percent — though, in Detroit, he received fewer individual votes than Hilary Clinton did in the previous presidential election.
While 2020 exit polls showed that 92 percent of Black people in Michigan had voted for Biden, his current approval number with Black people is less than half of that. Some of the contributing factors sited in the staggering drop in confidence include inflation, increasing costs for housing, his stance on the Israel-Hamas war, and perceived concerns about his health and age.
Earlier this month, Biden won the South Carolina primary by 96 percent. About half of Democratic voters in the state are Black, and, despite low voter turnout for the primary, it was a reason for the re-election campaign to cheer.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris vehemently understand the importance and impact of Black voters, not only in this election but in every election. That’s why, in August, we announced a $25 million advertising campaign which remains the largest and earliest investment in Black media for a reelection campaign in history,” Jasmine Harris said.
For Bradley, she said Michiganders will have a stark choice this November between progress and regression, and that she’s confident the Great Lakes State will once again back Biden and Harris over “the chaos and division of Donald Trump.”
“President Biden and Vice President Harris promised to deliver for Michigan, and they’ve kept that promise, with hundreds of thousands of jobs created,” she said. “Not to mention, they are protecting the (Affordable Care Act) so that over 400,000 Michiganders have health coverage – the very legislation Donald Trump wants to repeal. Donald Trump’s MAGA extremist agenda left the economy in shambles and Black unemployment and uninsured rates up.”
Essentially, the 2024 presidential election is a two-man race between Biden and Trump. A large portion of Black voters feel like the democratic party hasn’t done enough to earn their votes and has historically instead taken the vote for granted.
Black women, quite frankly, have been the Democratic Party’s most loyal supporters. They were considered the key to 2018’s “blue wave,” which resulted in more than 20 Black women being voted into Congress for the first time in history. In 2008 and 2012, 96 percent of Black women voted for Barack Obama, 94 percent of Black women voted for Clinton in 2016, and 93 percent voted for Biden in the 2020 election. Black men represent the second-largest percentage of a specific demographic to vote democratic, with anywhere from 84 and 88 percent of Black men voting this way each presidential year.
Vice President Harris agreed with the “earn our vote” rallying cry by so many Democrats. Earlier in February during a visit to Pittsburgh, the V.P. told Real Times Media newspaper leaders at the New Pittsburgh Courier that it is her job and her team’s job to show why the administration deserves re-election instead of resting their laurels on historic tendencies of Black voters.
The campaign team in Michigan sees the work ahead of them just like Vice President Harris: it’s a chance to prove to voters just how diligent the administration has been over the past three years at accomplishing their campaign promises. In the meantime, only time will tell whether or not the efforts of the three newly appointed Black campaigners will help lead to a re-election for the Biden-Harris ticket.
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