President Biden is launching a series of high-profile events to court Black voters, aiming to reclaim support among a once-reliable voting bloc that is showing a lack of enthusiasm. The president will deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College, the prestigious, all-male historically Black college and the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on Sunday. After his speech at Morehouse, the president will fly to Detroit to speak at a large NAACP chapter dinner there.
Before leaving Washington, Biden will give remarks at a dinner marking the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. He and Vice President Kamala Harris will also meet with the leaders of the "Divine Nine," historically Black sororities and fraternities, of which Harris is also a member.
Recent polling shows a lack of enthusiasm among Black people, especially men, for Biden in battleground states that Biden won in 2020 to help put him in office. The campaign now is launching a full-court press to reach Black voters in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and beyond. Andra Gillespie, a political-science professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said the Biden team must put a lot of effort toward get-out-the-vote efforts in the Black community, not just in metro Atlanta, but in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
A poll of swing states by The Wall Street Journal in March showed that 55% of Black voters supported Biden in a ballot against Trump, who received 15%, and potential third-party candidates, who combined received 18%. In 2020, 91% of Black voters nationwide supported Biden, as recorded by AP VoteCast, a large poll of the electorate that year. African-American voters are crucial for Democrats to win Georgia, where Black people make up about 33% of the population, far more than any other battleground state. CNN's Atlanta studios will hold the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on June 27.
Biden's Morehouse speech would be the second by a sitting president. News of the president's visit has stirred tensions on campus and in the wider Black community. Some Morehouse faculty and students oppose U.S. support for Israel in its war in Gaza, and some have discussed protesting at the graduation ceremony.
Before leaving Washington, Biden will give remarks at a dinner marking the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. He and Vice President Kamala Harris will also meet with the leaders of the "Divine Nine," historically Black sororities and fraternities, of which Harris is also a member.
Recent polling shows a lack of enthusiasm among Black people, especially men, for Biden in battleground states that Biden won in 2020 to help put him in office. The campaign now is launching a full-court press to reach Black voters in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and beyond. Andra Gillespie, a political-science professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said the Biden team must put a lot of effort toward get-out-the-vote efforts in the Black community, not just in metro Atlanta, but in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
A poll of swing states by The Wall Street Journal in March showed that 55% of Black voters supported Biden in a ballot against Trump, who received 15%, and potential third-party candidates, who combined received 18%. In 2020, 91% of Black voters nationwide supported Biden, as recorded by AP VoteCast, a large poll of the electorate that year. African-American voters are crucial for Democrats to win Georgia, where Black people make up about 33% of the population, far more than any other battleground state. CNN's Atlanta studios will hold the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on June 27.
Biden's Morehouse speech would be the second by a sitting president. News of the president's visit has stirred tensions on campus and in the wider Black community. Some Morehouse faculty and students oppose U.S. support for Israel in its war in Gaza, and some have discussed protesting at the graduation ceremony.
