Donald Trump’s support among Black voters has declined significantly since President Joe Biden stepped aside as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris.
A new CNN poll conducted on July 22 and 23, among registered voters who had previously participated in CNN polls in April and June, found that Harris had the support of 78% of Black voters, while Trump received 15%.
A previous poll of Trump vs Biden shows the former president receiving 23% support of Black voters, while 70% backed Biden.
The Trump campaign has stepped up efforts to appeal to Black voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election and was seeing marginal success. But new polling suggests that those slight increases in Black support were due to Black voters growing frustrated with Biden and not a successful outreach attempt by the Trump campaign.
“Black voters peeling away from Trump suggest that his hold on this demographic was always tenuous,” Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science and director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, U.K., told Newsweek. “The question is whether those losses are compensated for by an increase in Trump’s support by other voters, especially white, working-class Americans who Biden appealed to by emphasizing his blue-collar, Scranton roots.”
All across the board in key groups, voters are more enthusiastic about the new campaign and the prospect of a historic Harris presidency.
In the CNN poll, voters under 35, who backed Trump 49% to 42% Biden in April or June, now support Harris 47% to 43% for Trump. The same Hispanic voters who broke for Trump 50% to 41% in the race against Biden, now support Harris 47% to 45% for Trump.
In earlier polls, female voters were evenly split 46% between Trump and Biden, now they’re split 50% Harris to 45% Trump.
Biden stepped down as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on Sunday amid concerns from some within the party about his ability to defeat Trump in November.
Biden endorsed Harris as his replacement shortly after ending his campaign. Democrats quickly coalesce around Harris and within 24 hours she secured the support of a majority of pledged delegates to officially win the party’s nomination for president at next month’s convention.
