Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder doesn’t think polls showing eroding support among Black men for Vice President Kamala Harris means they won’t vote for her in November.
Former President Barack Obama’s AG told Fox 2 Detroit he expects Black voters will ultimately decide to cast their lot with Harris, opining they’ll “make decisions based on facts as opposed to feelings that we live in a society that sometimes is sexist in nature, and we have these tendencies that we might not realize.”
The comments come as the Harris campaign unveils an “Opportunity Agenda” the VP claims will open up opportunities for Black men in the financial sector.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
Quentin Fulks, Harris’ deputy campaign manager, told Fox 2 Detroit the effort involves “creating a million small business loans for African American men, $20,000 forgivable loans to Black entrepreneurs to be able to start new businesses.”
“It’s definitely a continuation of the work the vice president has been focused on as her time over the past three and a half years as vice president,” he said. “And when Biden was at the top of the ticket she was traveling around the country, doing the economic opportunity tour with Black men.”
Black Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell told the news site those efforts have done little for Black men working to create businesses in Michigan.
“We work with Detroit, Pontiac, Flint and Saginaw, we work with Black entrepreneurs,” he said. “We just had a forum in Pontiac on Saturday – and we do not have access to resources. We’re not asking for the lions’ share – we are asking for a fair share.”
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
The latest New York Times/Siena College poll of Black and Hispanic voters nationwide shows former President Donald Trump with 15% support among Black voters, and 37% support from Hispanics.
“Almost any way we can measure it, Mr. Trump is running as well or better among Black and Hispanic voters as any Republican in recent memory,” The Times reports. “In 2020, Joe Biden’s Black support was 92 percent among major-party voters; his Hispanic support was 63 percent.”
The polling translates into more support for Trump than any Republican presidential candidate since the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964, according to the news site.
Obama suggested during a campaign stop for Harris last week the problem “is more pronounced with the brothers” and blamed the situation on misogyny.
“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” Obama said.
Holder told Fox News he’s “not sure” how Harris’ gender is factoring into her declining support among Black men, but stressed it’s an issue “I don’t think … should be overblown.”
“I can’t get into everybody’s minds and figure out exactly what it is that drives them one way or the other,” he said. “What president Obama talked about (is) certainly something that is relevant.”
Black voters in Detroit who spoke with NPR, including many who plan to vote for Trump, pointed to Democrats’ relentless LGBTQ advocacy, the need for strong leadership on the economy, and the process for anointing Harris as the Democratic candidate as major reasons many are skeptical of the VP.
“I’m almost 50,” local Bobby Stokes told NPR. “I’ve never been alive where they just appointed somebody to go run for the presidency. They always had debate. They had a process. And they skipped the process. And then they just drew Kamala there.
“So my thing is, why? Why would they just throw here there, number one? Then number two, when you look at the world, when they had these meetings, it’s going to be, like, representing China, a man, representing Russia, a man. So then the big, bad strong U.S. going to have Kamala. In my opinion, I don’t think the world is ready for it.”
Others, meanwhile, are taking offense to the assertion from Obama, Holder, and others that Black voters should automatically align with Democrats, despite a long history of broken promises to Black communities.
“Why are black men being lectured to?” former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner questioned. “Why are black men being belittled in ways that no other voting groups are?”
Black Men for Trump argue it was the 45th POTUS, rather than the 44th, that produced “real results for Black America.”
“He restored the American Dream by creating jobs, lowering Black unemployment, launching Opportunity Zones, and securing permanent funding for (historically black colleges and universities),” the group’s advisory board wrote in a statement in response to Obama’s remarks. “Under Trump, Black families had a shot at building wealth, breaking generational cycles, and thriving.”