TUCSON, Ariz. – If there is a prototypical Kamala Harris voter, it might look like Charles Johnson, a 23-year-old black college student.
Johnson is knowledgeable and engaged in politics; he went to hear former President Barack Obama speak at a Democratic campaign rally on the University of Arizona campus on Friday.
However, he is not too impressed with either Obama, the country’s first black president, or Harris, who will be the second. He says he is inclined to vote for Donald Trump.
“The media says it [Trump] he’s terrible and he’s racist and he’s going to set us back, but he’s only getting the support of black voters,” Johnson said in an interview. “She only gets support with black men.”
Democrats have been angered by recent polls showing Harris’ numbers are slipping among black voters, particularly young Black men. One of Obama’s tasks in campaigning for Harris is to convince black people like Johnson that voting for Trump would be a big mistake. An Obama aide said that in the days leading up to the election, he will conduct interviews with podcasters and various internet personalities with large black followings.
He remains to this day a singular figure in national politics who is very popular. Obama is the only president since Ronald Reagan to be elected president twice with more than 50% of the vote.
A survey of Emerson College This month, it showed that the majority of voters have a favorable opinion of the 44th president, who will decide the election in each of the 7 key states.
His advisers speak regularly with Harris, acting as a “sounding board” on matters such as Obama’s candidacy. He offered any help she might need with campaign strategy, fundraising and staffing, they added. After Harris replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe signed on as one of his top advisers.
Working mostly behind the scenes, Obama has already raised nearly $80 million in total for the Democratic ticket. One aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, at one point shot 21 videos in one session for Harris’ campaign.
“Black male voters have a lot of respect and admiration for President Obama, and they’re going to be careful what his message is,” said Joel Benenson, a former Obama campaign pollster. “What’s hidden in his message is, ‘You should rally around him as you rally around me.’ That’s the message they’re going to get, and it’s going to be helpful.”
However, it is not certain that Obama’s target audience is listening to him.
The son of a black father and a white mother, Obama is forever embedded in America’s rich history of race. As a young presidential candidate in 2008, he gave one of the nation’s most influential speeches on race relations. Although his election cleared hurdles, after taking office, aides said he did not want to be a leading “teacher.” A sort of national seminar on race in America.
He sensed early on how dangerous it was for a sitting president to delve into the matter. Reacting to the arrest of a black Harvard University professor who was locked out of his home and tried to break in, Obama said the police acted “stupidly”. Later, he invited both the professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and the white arresting officer to the White House for what he called a “beer summit.”
Obama is now 63 years old, as thin as ever, and his hair has gone gray. Since leaving office, he has been selective in his public appearances, hitting the campaign trail when he believes voters are tuned in and can make the biggest difference.
A Harris aide said the campaign wants Obama to time his rallies to coincide with the start of early voting in key battleground states. “She’s been a very useful surrogate in that regard,” campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said.
A younger generation of black Americans may have seen very little of Obama, with only dim memories of his presidency, which ended nearly eight years ago.
At a pair of rallies in Tucson and Las Vegas in recent days, Obama drew thousands of cheering supporters, though turnout among young black men was low.
When it comes to this different segment of the electorate, Obama may not be the compelling messenger he once was, some participants said.
Miles Covington, 35, a black student at the University of Arizona, said he had not yet decided how he would vote. He came to hear Obama speak, and as he stood in line for the event on campus, he said he didn’t see Obama as a figure who would particularly influence young black people.
“It resonates with a different culture,” Covington said. “They’re going to need a young guy to come in and be Black. He is not a young man.”
Obama’s appeal to black men earlier this month sparked backlash. Speaking to a group of campaign volunteers in Pittsburgh, he adopted a tone that some thought was scolding. He said black men who tend to be in the race “just don’t feel comfortable with the idea of a woman being president because you find other alternatives and other reasons for it.”
Blowback came from unexpected quarters, including Stephen A. Smithprominent sports talk show personality.
A person close to him said that he did not deter Obama. He believes black male voters are essential to Harris’ victory, and he’s focused on mobilizing what has historically been a loyal part of the Democratic coalition.
In an election that remains mixed, Harris wants to prevent any erosion of the Black vote. Obama won 95% of the black vote during his first presidential bid in 2008, and 93% when he was re-elected four years later.
That’s what a New York Times/Siena College survey revealed earlier this month 78% of black voters favored Harris nationally — 12 points below Biden’s 2020 margin when he narrowly defeated Trump.
Even if he can’t improve his standing among those voters, Harris could still make up for the shortfall by outperforming past Democratic presidential candidates with other segments of the electorate.
“We’re going to do better with black people than the polls show,” Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said in an interview.
Pritzker, who was in Las Vegas for an abortion rights rally on Saturday, added: “In one sense, you can focus on black men. But at the same time, you could say that there is a much higher percentage of women without a college education who support Kamala Harris than ever before. So, there is some confusion in the election.”
In his most recent speeches, Obama pushed back on the argument that sexism might drive male voters away from Harris.
He did not mention race in Tucson or Las Vegas, and instead argued that men may be attracted to Trump under the false impression that he is a powerful figure, an alpha male.
“I’ve seen that, especially with some men who think Trump’s behavior and violence and putting people down and pretending to be a tough guy, it’s kind of a sign of strength,” he said. “I am here to tell you that this is not true power. It never happened. True strength is working hard and carrying a heavy load without complaint. “Real strength is taking responsibility for your actions and telling the truth, even when it’s inconvenient.”
This reasoning rang true for some blacks who came to hear him speak. Trump, they said, exudes a kind of modesty that some men emulate.
Kalid Mackey, 53, is black and a Harris supporter, and drove 12 hours from California to see Obama speak in Las Vegas.
“With Obama, he can help to some extent and has continued the dialogue. But I don’t believe he can do much,” he said in an interview.
Trump is a 78-year-old white man, but he has a “charisma” that some young black men find attractive, she said.
He described Trump’s attitude as follows: “I do what I want when I want. I have a billion dollars. I don’t follow the rules. I speak as I want to speak.” They see it and they see hip-hop.”
Plus, some black men are wary of Harris because of his background as a former prosecutor in California, Meky said.
“African American men have had rough experiences with law enforcement,” he said, adding that “a former prosecutor and a lot of black guys like us?”
There is much more to Trump’s rhetoric and life story that others find offensive. Harris’ campaign emphasized that in 1989, Trump “Central Park Five” — Four black teenagers and one Latino teenager are falsely accused of assaulting a jogger in Central Park. Their sentence was overturned.
During the election campaign, Trump faced criticism for claiming that immigrants went to “black jobs”.
Johnson, a 23-year-old college student, is aware of Trump’s past and accusations of racism.
“Does it bother me?” he said. “No. I have to think that Biden, a [81]- old white man, will not be a racist?
“When Obama was running for president, he talked a lot about race,” he said. “I’m not sure he’s the most racially progressive president ever. If he really wanted to do it, he could do more. I think he was doing it to get elected, and I’m worried about Kamala.”