DETROIT – Former Pres Donald Trump‘s campaign launched a Black voter coalition group on Saturday, the clearest effort yet by Trump to target a voting bloc that has largely supported Democrats in past elections. has been unusually open to Trump in public opinion polls.
The announcement came ahead of a community roundtable event held at 180 of Detroit’s predominantly black churches. Black Republicans at Trump’s event included former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Florida, and John James, R-Mich. Trump said at the event that Donald is “on the list of potential vice presidents” and asked the crowd, “Does anyone want to see him? I noticed your name is very high on the list.”
“Historic proportions of black voters now support President Trump, and the reason is simple: Black voters know that President Trump is the only presidential candidate who can deliver on Day One, because he already is,” the Trump campaign said in a statement announcing the launch. the Black Americans for Trump effort, which highlights unemployment rates and household income levels for blacks during his presidency.
The new Trump coalition group marks Trump’s attempt to mirror the Black outreach efforts of President Joe Biden’s campaign, which has invested millions of dollars to recruit, organize and pay for media outlets that have so far only been designed to appeal to the Black voting base.
The Biden-Harris campaign launched its own Black voter coalition group, “Black Voters for Biden-Harris,” in late May in Philadelphia. The event marked a rare joint appearance by both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, both of whom credited black voters for playing a crucial role in their 2020 victory.
At that event, Biden and Harris tried to paint Trump as a threat to Black American progress and reviewed some of Trump’s past controversies.
“What do you think he would have done on January 6 if black Americans had attacked the Capitol,” Biden said at the event. “I don’t think he will talk about the pardon. This is the man who wants to tear gas you when you peacefully protest the killing of George Floyd. The same man who still calls the Central Park Five guilty even though they were acquitted.”
Biden-Harris spokeswoman Jasmine Harris said in a statement, “Donald Trump thinks his ‘lots of black friends’ have excuses for belittling and disrespecting black Americans his entire life, but black voters know better — and Trump’s eleventh-hour attempt against Black people.” aitriach’ isn’t fooling anyone.
In a recent television ad, the Biden campaign also suggested that Trump is the “enemy” of black voters. He referred to the former president as “a textbook racist who disrespects and attacks the Black community at every opportunity he gets.”
However, during a roundtable in Detroit, Trump called Biden a threat to black Americans and cited his role as an author. Crime Bill 1994.
“He’s talking about the black vote now — he’s the king of the ‘super predators,'” Trump said. “He wrote the 1994 crime bill that you all talk about so much, I guess everyone here knows that, especially if you’re Black.”
The former president’s supporters say the current political climate is conducive for Trump to reach out to black voters, and the creation of Trump’s coalition is a last-ditch effort to reach out, particularly to young black men. seems more willing to hear his message.
Trump’s Black election cycle began in February when he headlined the Black Conservative Federation’s annual gala ahead of the South Carolina Republican primary.
The group plans to continue supporting the former president’s efforts toward Black people. The Black Conservative Federation held a free community barbecue before Trump’s Detroit event and plans to hold similar events throughout June as it accompanies Trump to events in predominantly black cities.
it happened at a Black Conservative Federation event that February Trump first floated a now-famous narrative among Republicans that his court cases could boost his appeal among black voters.
“I was accused a second time and a third time and a fourth time and a lot of people said that’s why black people love me because they’ve been hurt and discriminated against so badly and they actually looked at me like, ‘I’m being discriminated against,'” she said. Trump.
Months later, Trump’s belief in this theory grew stronger. The former president held one of the more racially diverse rallies in the Bronx, New YorkIn the waning days of hush money litigation in New York.
The belief has also been perpetuated in part by Trump’s support of prominent black cultural figures, including rappers Sexxy Red, Kodak Black and 50 Cent. During a visit to the Capitol last month, 50 Cent spoke about Trump’s relationship with black people.
“I see they’re the same with Trump … because there’s RICO charges,” the rapper said.
Trump has recently enlisted local rappers to perform at his events. Detroit rapper Sada Baby, whose song “Whole Lotta Choppas” went viral on TikTok in 2020, was invited by the Trump campaign to participate in a roundtable event in Detroit.
But other black voters argued that members of Trump’s community were more familiar with him because of the overlapping court cases, suggesting the lawsuit was at best stereotypical and at worst racist. Undecided Black voters who spoke to NBC News as part of a focus group in February said they found the comment offensive.
“I don’t know any African-American men who have paid to cover up sexual infidelity,” said El-Mehdi Holly of Georgia. “It would be in his best interest to understand that we are not engaged in the type of activity that he generally finds.”
After the Republican National Committee shut down several minority centers earlier this year, some Black Republicans have privately expressed concern about the campaign’s lack of infrastructure in predominantly black cities and the impact it could have on black voters newly interested in Trump.
James, a Michigan congressman, told Trump “years ago” in a White House meeting that Republicans had previously “not invested enough” in Black advocacy to pay off.
“We have to show up, that’s why we’re here today,” James said. “We must be like the first republicans willing to trouble themselves for the sake of freedom.”
Before Trump’s coalition team was launched, Trump’s outreach to Black people focused primarily on quick stops at businesses in black neighborhoods, including a stop at Chick-fil-A in Atlanta. universities.
Michaelah Montgomery, the organizer of that Chick-fil-A visit whose embrace of Trump went viral, said some of the HBCU students pictured with Trump were later bullied and mobbed by some of their peers.
“My students faced brutal violence when news of our meeting at CFA spread. They were ostracized by their peers, donors threatened to withdraw their donations, people said they embarrassed their institutions,” Montgomery said.
Now, many of the president’s black supporters think there has been a change. Trump hosted dozens of Atlanta HBCU students for dinner at a Florida resort earlier this month.
Trump’s campaign to win black voters will be supported by a number of his allies, including many of the vice presidential candidates.
Sen. Tim Scott has announced a $14 million “full-fledged” black voter outreach campaign that will target low-propensity, black and Latino voters in battleground states ahead of the election.
Donalds and fellow Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, held a “Congress, Cognac and Cigars” event in Philadelphia earlier this month for a “real conversation about the black male vote.” The two will host a similar event in Atlanta later this month.
And Trump plans to hold his next rally in Philadelphia next Saturday, another opportunity for the former president to sharpen his message to black voters.