Black voters in Georgia 'disappointed' by Biden: 'It makes me wonder why I vote'
Black voters in rural Georgia told the New York Times they were disappointed by how the Democratic Party had failed to deliver on promises to improve their lives, saying things had only become harder with President Biden in office.
Dozens of these voters in their 20s and 30s spoke with the paper's Mara Gay about the daily struggles they face buying groceries, affording housing and paying back costly student loans in an area they say is sparse in high-paying jobs.
While many of these voters helped elect Biden in the 2020 election, "there are signs this coalition is on the brink of collapse," Gay wrote in her opinion piece. These voters feel "forgotten" and have a growing sense of "disdain" toward the Democratic Party.
"Many Black voters say President Biden and the Democratic Party have so far failed to deliver the changes they need to improve their lives, from higher-paid jobs to student debt relief and voting protections. They want Mr. Trump out of the White House for good. But indifference and even disdain are growing toward a Democratic Party that relies assiduously on Black Americans’ support yet rarely seems in a hurry to deliver results for them in return," Gay wrote.
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While these voters were unlikely to vote Trump in 2024, several expressed apathy to voting for Biden as an alternative.
"What does he know about my life?" 19-year-old Kyla Johnson told the paper of Biden. She said she had no plans to vote in the 2024 election.
Barber Shaun Williams said most of his clients hated Trump, but had seen their lives get harder with rising inflation under Biden.
"Bad as things were, people say they felt money was circulating with Trump in office, those stimulus checks," the 38-year-old told the Times. "Now there is no money circulating. Prices are up. The cost of food is up."
Erica Jordan, a 29-year-old single mother, described the financial struggles she's gone through recently and how she's looking for a candidate to help her situation. While she plans to vote in 2024, she doesn't see it changing her life.
"All my life, I been played," she told the paper. "Every year it gets harder. It makes me wonder why I vote."
A New York Times/Siena College poll in November found Trump had reached an unprecedented level of support from Black voters in battleground states like Georgia that President Biden won in 2020. Black voters in Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are now registering 22 percent support for Trump, up from eight percent in 2020.
The Biden campaign pointed to the infrastructure bill and relief for Black farmers as ways it is helping reach these voters.
The campaign has also blamed Republicans for stonewalling efforts by Democrats to help those struggling.
"We want to point out the fact that the Republicans have stood in the way," Quentin Fulks, Biden's principal deputy campaign manager, told the Times. Democrats also need to do a better job of communicating how they've helped Americans, he argued.
Biden campaign official Michael Tyler sent a similar message in comments last month to CNN.
"But we have to be honest about the brick wall of MAGA extremism that we continue to run into when we're trying to get things done for the American people," he told CNN's Victor Blackwell on "First of All with Victor Blackwell" in November.