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A group of black voters told MSNBC that they personally know at least one black man who is determined to vote for former President Trump over Senator Kamala Harris in the November election.
During a network special aired over the weekend, MSNBC legal analyst Charles Coleman held a roundtable discussion with four black male voters of different age groups about the upcoming presidential election and how Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee influenced their votes.
“How many black men do you know who have stated they are going to vote for Donald Trump?” Coleman asked during the MSNBC special “Black Men in America: The Road to 2024,” which aired on “Belshie” on Sunday.
'They take us for granted': Black Americans speak out about Democrats' misconceptions about them
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at Westover High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on July 18, 2024. (Alison Joyce/AFP via Getty Images)
All four raised their hands. “For those brethren who said that to you, has the arrival of Kamala Harris changed that?” he asked.
“No,” they answered unanimously.
One respondent said his friend voted for Trump because of the “stimulus checks.” Another said black male acquaintances who support the former president do so because they're concerned about “interest rates.” They believe “Trump is going to lower interest rates.” The sentiment among this group of people was, “We just want the guy out there,” he told Coleman.
Coleman told MSNBC host Alex Witt on Sunday morning that the biggest takeaway from his talks with key voting groups is that Black voters “are not a monolith.”
“This was an intergenerational conversation, and we got to hear different perspectives on what the excitement has been like since Kamala Harris ran for president, and also how it hasn't changed for some people,” he said.
Has the battlefield changed with Harris at the top?
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris introduces U.S. President Joe Biden during a campaign rally at Girard College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 29, 2024. Biden last week dropped out of the White House race to endorse Harris. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)
“What I hear from young people talking about their issues is that they're not necessarily impressed with the importance of Kamala Harris as a black woman, because their standard for the presidency is President Obama. I mean, they had a black president,” Coleman added.
He said some black voters feel pressured to support Harris regardless of her policies and those on issues that matter to them.
“One of the things I learned is that because of the fact that she's a Black woman, there's a feeling in some people that they're just going to jump on the bandwagon regardless of what she's talking about. I thought that was a really interesting dynamic,” Coleman said.
In another segment of the MSNBC special, Coleman asked the same group of black male voters whether they felt a community obligation to support Harris as the top candidate.
“It's a pretty big thing. We're already seeing the push and the calls to support her,” teacher Corey Alexander responded. “I was already voting for her. The Biden administration actually advocated for student loan forgiveness and even forgave my wife's loans, which was a direct benefit to me. So, that solidified my vote. But I feel like the symbolism of this moment just kind of cements us a little bit more to support her, even without hearing the policies.”
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Left: Bill Pagliano/Getty Images; Right: Ting Sheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Kurt Killen, who works in financial management, said he feels like anyone who questions Harris' positions is being made into the “demon.”
“For me, it's doubly important because, for me personally, you're demonized for questioning something. Questioning something means you're against something,” he told Coleman. “Politically, there's no room for really deep conversations because of the time frame in which decisions are made. You're almost forced to just say, 'Here we go.'”
Focus group of black men slams Democratic Party messaging as “pandering”
MSNBC host Joy Reid recently said that black people will be thought of as “really weird” and “really crazy” if they don't vote for Harris in November.
Asked if they thought Harris could beat Trump in November, three in four said “yes,” while a fourth said “I hope so, but I don't think so.”
Democrats have had overwhelming support among black voters for decades, but Trump appears to be chipping away at this key constituency.
Biden won 87% of the black vote in 2020 compared with Trump's 12%, but his support among black and Hispanic voters was declining even before he announced he would not seek reelection.
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A Fox News poll conducted in early July, before Biden ended his campaign, found that only 69% of black voters said they would vote for Harris if she faced off against Trump. New research suggests that Harris could surpass Biden's declining support among black voters running against Trump.
Fox News' Joshua Nelson contributed to this report.