White House aides reportedly met with prominent black male Democrats while concerns continue to rise over President Joe Biden’s fledgling poll numbers with the voting block, attendees told the New York Times (NYT).
The prominent black male Democrats, such as Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Rep. Steven Horsford, who met with the White House suggested that the administration needs to do a better job at emphasizing how it has helped black men, some of the aides in attendance told the NYT. During the meeting, attendees told the NYT that the group was in a general agreement that Biden has snubbed black males, instead focusing more on black females since his 2020 campaign. (RELATED: Biden May Reportedly Delay Menthol Ban After Concerns Of Political Implications)
“It’s clear that there’s been a focus on Black women and the question becomes, has there been an equal focus on Black men?” Richmond told the NYT.
Those in attendance, including Jaime Harrison, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, reportedly stressed that Democrats have a messaging problem when it comes to touting how the administration has helped black males, the NYT reported.
“We left the room acknowledging that we collectively have to do a better job communicating,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul told the NYT. “Sometimes being awakened to a challenge is a good thing.”
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris (L) host a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), in the Oval Office at the White House on February 02, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Twenty-two percent of black voters in several key battleground states said they would choose former President Donald Trump over Biden, according to a November NYT and Siena College poll. In a Tuesday GenForward poll from the University of Chicago, 63% of black Americans said they would choose Biden, while 20% of the voting block said they wouldn’t choose either the sitting president nor Trump.
The recent polls spell bad news for Biden who, in the 2020 election, garnered 92 percent of the black vote, while Trump received eight percent, according to the Pew Research Center. Seventeen percent of black voters now say they would vote for Trump, according to the GenForward survey.
“If we ignore what Black men are saying, then we would have some problems. This is to say, ‘We will not ignore,'” Clay Middleton, a political operative based in South Carolina, told NYT about the meeting.