President Joe Biden is evidently feeling the heat as he braces for a potential showdown with his predecessor, Donald Trump, in the forthcoming electoral cycle. The robust voting bloc that enabled him to clinch the presidency from Trump in the 2020 elections is reportedly disassembling, which notably involves the African American voters.
Recent polling data shows a seismic shift among African American men in several battleground states, 30 percent of who are considering offering their support to the former president. This surge in support represents a substantial growth from the 12 percent of black men who voted for him in 2020.
While the current president is still expected to receive a majority vote from the African American community, with 57 percent expressing their intent to vote Democratic, there is a noticeable drop in support from the 2020 election figures. This declining support could well be an indicator of President Biden’s wavering term in office.
Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, a high-profile Democratic super PAC, declared, ‘For this particular election, the challenge isn’t merely about getting the votes but about persuading voters to align with Biden, steering them away from third parties and Trump.’
Black voters are predicted to constitute about 1 percent of the total vote count in the 2024 elections, tallying an estimated 34.4 million. In light of these figures, Biden has made concerted efforts to secure the confidence of the black community.
To appeal to decisive voters across swing states, Biden’s campaign staked an exceptional $25 million in an advertising blitz back in August. This funding allocation for black media channels constituted the largest expenditure of its kind aimed toward reelection in history.
These measures were initiated as Democratic pollster Michael Bocian voiced his alarm over Biden’s standing among black voters, emphasizing that ‘Biden is trailing behind compared to previous Democratic nominees.’
President Biden is reported to be gravely concerned about the waning support from black voters. Consequently, his administration has been accused of applying delay tactics on critical issues to retain these votes.
A notable example of this strategy has been his direction to the Food and Drug Administration to postpone a ban on menthol cigarettes until after the upcoming election. Observers claim that such a move is a clear attempt to curry favor with African American voters.
In his column for the Washington Examiner, Jeremiah Poff branded this move by Biden as ‘a blatant act of election-year pandering.’ Highlighting the fact that the FDA, under Biden’s watch, has been deliberating on a menthol cigarette ban for two years, Poff argued that this delay is purely political.
Poff’s article states, ‘Biden, in order to reinforce his support base among black voters, a demographic whose support seems to be shifting, is trying to ensure that menthol cigarettes remain accessible as he believes it will aid him politically.’
Still, Poff insinuates that ‘the final verdict’ regarding whether this delay will steer black votes in favor of Biden remains uncertain. Yet, Poff criticizes this maneuver as a clear exploitation of the rules with the objective of pandering to African American voters.
He contests that the black voters, according to the views of Biden and his Democratic colleagues, can simply be persuaded to support the candidacy of Biden by delaying a rule that will unquestionably be enacted following the election, should Biden secure a second term.
Poff wrote, ‘Biden and the partisan Democrats at the FDA seem to believe that black voters could invariably be baited to continue supporting the Democratic Party as long as their access to menthol cigarettes is granted through Election Day.’
Poff’s critique portrays Biden’s approach as an underestimation of this key voter demographic. ‘With such a narrow perspective of these voters, it is hardly surprising that Donald Trump has been gaining more favor among black voters than any Republican candidate has in over fifty years,’ Poff wrote.
As a final thought, Poff identified wide-scale problems affecting all Americans, such as unprecedented inflation, stagnant wages, and an escalating border crisis, as serious shortcomings of the Biden administration. He derides Biden’s strategy of resorting to ‘old-fashioned pandering’ as a feeble attempt to remedy these profound issues.
