Five Article Excerpts About Black Voters And The 2020 USA Presidential Election

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents excerpts from four online articles about how Black voters helped Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win the 2020 USA Presidential/Vice Presidential election. 

The fifth excerpt in this post presents some reasons why Trump gained a larger share of the Black vote in 2020 than he received in 2016.  

The content of this post is presented for political and socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Congratulations to President-Elect Joe Biden and to Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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EXCERPTS FROM SELECTED ARTICLES

These articles are given in no particular order. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.   

Excerpt #1
From https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/black-women-led-through-most-consequential-contest-lifetimes-high-time-thank-them "Black Women Led Us Through The Most Consequential Political Contest Of Our Lifetimes. It’s High Time We Thank Them."

Exit polls report that more than 90 percent of Black women cast their ballots for Biden and Harris, voting as a bloc.

By Martha S. Jones, November 6, 2020 11:31 a.m.
…"The story of the 2020 election is one about the Black women whom I have dubbed the “Vanguard,” women who have led us through the most fraught yet consequential political contest of our lifetimes; women who have given this country its best shot at pulling back from a deeper plunge into racism, misogyny, xenophobia, authoritarianism and a fatal disregard for basic public health.

Don’t let the pundits distract you from the numbers. As Democrats eke out slim victories in new battleground states like Georgia and Pennsylvania, Black women have made all the difference. Exit polls report that more than 90 percent of Black women cast their ballots for Biden and Harris, voting as a bloc. Their nearest rivals in 2020 are Black men, 80% of whom supported the Democratic ticket, making the Black women impact unparalleled."...

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Excerpt #2

From  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/05/black-voters-wisconsin-joe-biden "How young, Black voters lifted Biden's bid for the White House"

Black voters helped the Democrat win the nomination. Now they form the backbone of his support in key states like Wisconsin

Kenya Evelyn in Milwaukee

Fri 6 Nov 2020 02.00 EST
…"What we’re all re-learning, both the pundits in DC and uninspired Black voters, is the value of our net worth when we show up at the ballot box,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist in South Carolina. “Even when we’re suppressed, depressed, or misinformed, we still show up.”

According to exit poll data, Black voters overwhelmingly backed the Democratic candidate by a margin of 87% to Donald Trump’s 12%. But Seawright had “been saying Black voters will decide the election since 2017”, last predicting South Carolina’s loyal Black moderates would propel Biden to victory in the state’s February Democratic primary.

With ballots still being counted, mail-in or absentee ballots from Democratic-leaning counties, most with large Black populations, are likely to be the deciding factor in who becomes the next US president, amplifying the power of the Black electorate.

Analysts pinpoint a surge in turnout among young people of all races, but especially Black Americans.

Early voting data already showed young people turning out in record numbers, and with four in 10 eligible Black voters being millennials or from generation Z, the push in urban centers like Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit was critical for Biden.

According to polling data analysis by the AP and Tufts University, Black voters under 30, 88% voted for Biden and only 9% voted for Trump.”…

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Excerpt #3
From https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/how-black-voters-key-cities-helped-deliver-election-joe-biden-n1246980 "How Black voters in key cities helped deliver the election for Joe Biden"
Nov. 7, 2020, 5:24 PM EST
By Janell Ross
"The fact that we have matched and topped white voter participation and done that while going through voter suppression in new and old forms every year, we are extraordinary," said organizer LaTosha Brown.

[…]

The Black people who make up 39 percent or more of the population in those areas chose Biden, with some exceptions. In fact, once the vote counts from Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Atlanta started to near completion, Trump's lead in their respective states disappeared. Biden — who would not have been the Democratic presidential nominee without Black voters in South Carolina — reached 270 Electoral College votes in large part because of Black voters in these cities.

[…]

Initial voting data and exit polls point to a few patterns: Record numbers of Americans cast ballots for each of the candidates, with many more Democrats exercising early and mail-in voting options than Republicans.

According to exit polls, Trump claimed about 18 percent of the vote among Black men and 8 percent among Black women, increases over his performance among both groups in 2016. But Biden held 87 percent of the Black vote, performing better among Black voters than any other demographic group.

And, much like almost every other Democrat since the 1960s, Biden won about 42 percent of the white vote.”…

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Excerpt #4
From https://apnews.com/article/votecast-race-class-divide-elections-27cfbd82c14d6649097bd706f4158e4e  "AP VoteCast: Trump, Biden coalitions show race, class divide"

By JOSH BOAK and HANNAH FINGERHUT
November 4, 2020
…"Biden amassed a sizable and diverse coalition of young, women, college-educated, urban and Black voters, groups that powered his party’s 2018 midterm victories. Some 38% of his support came from voters of color.

Trump, meanwhile, marshaled his overwhelmingly white and rural supporters to turn out voters in the places that anchored his victory four years ago. He held on to 62% of white voters without a college degree, despite Biden’s hopes of peeling off large numbers of them. And in some competitive states, like Nevada and Florida, Trump ate away at Biden’s support among Latinos.

[…]

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. voters were white and 55% of them backed Trump. The president secured 81% of white evangelical Christians. About half of men voted for him. Trump won 60% of voters living in small towns and rural areas.

Nationwide, nearly 57% of college graduates backed Biden. So did 55% of women. And 55% of voters under the age of 45. He won 65% of urban voters and 54% of suburbanites.

Biden voters were far more concerned about racism in the U.S., after a year of rising tensions, peaceful demonstrations and sometimes-violent clashes over racial justice. Nearly all Biden voters called racism a serious problem in U.S. society and in policing, including about 7 in 10 who called it “very” serious.”…

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Excerpt #5
From https://www.vox.com/2020/11/4/21537966/trump-black-voters-exit-polls "Trump made gains with Black voters in some states. Here’s why."

With disinformation and economic promises, Trump lobbied hard for the Black vote in the final days of the campaign.

By Sean Collins  Nov 4, 2020, 5:10pm EST
"..AP and Edison pollsters are still adjusting the weighting on their data to ensure it’s as accurate as possible, but here’s what we know right now:

Black voters made up about 11 or 12 percent of the electorate, according to the AP and Edison, respectively.

[….]

The AP found that 90 percent of Black voters went to Biden and 8 percent to Trump.

Edison Research determined that 87 percent of Black voters voted for Biden and 12 percent for Trump.

Both found Black men were more likely than Black women to support Trump. In the AP’s case, 12 percent of Black men voters backed Trump, compared to 6 percent of Black women; in Edison’s case, 18 percent of Black men voters cast ballots for Trump, while 8 percent of Black women did the same.

The election is still very close, and his gains with Black voters may not be enough to win Trump the presidency, but it is certainly enough to make Democrats wonder about their strategy with Black voters — particularly Black men.

[…]

Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — said that “Joe Biden called Black Youth SUPER PREDATORS” (a term used by former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, not Biden), and aired ads that featured remarks Biden made during an interview with The Breakfast Club’s Charlamagne tha God, in which the former vice president said, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”

While some Black Trump supporters seemed to have been swayed by the president’s rhetoric — a Black Michigan man voting for Trump told the New York Times he believed the president would make neighborhoods safer, for instance — the most salient points Trump made appear to be economic ones.

[…]

As the Economic Policy Institute’s Valerie Wilson has explained, wages for all ethnic groups have risen since the beginning of the Great Recession; Black wages rose the least, by 6.3 percent. Those increases began before Trump was president and were driven largely by rising minimum wages at the state and local levels, as well as a more competitive labor market.

But Trump has been able to capitalize on these increases in part due to his brand — before he became a politician, he worked to convince people that if they followed him, monetary success would come.

[…]

Economic promises are front and center in the “Platinum Plan” [that is proposed by President Trump]. It starts with a commitment to “uplift Black communities across the country through a $500 billion investment.” That money, the Trump campaign promised, would fund 3 million new Black jobs, 500,000 new Black businesses, increased Black homeownership, and new opportunities for Black churches to receive federal dollars.

How Trump might get a Congress that has struggled to pass a $500 billion pandemic stimulus package — particularly Senate Republicans, who have again starting claiming that they worry about adding to the national debt — to pass a half-trillion-dollar aid package for Black Americans was not included in the plan. But that lack of specificity never appeared to concern many of Trump’s Black supporters.”…

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