Black men explain why they abandoned Democrats for Trump

President-elect Donald Trump doubled its support among black men compared to last cycle, while also likely accumulating largest percentage of voters of color for the Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon.

Black men voted for Trump at about 21%, while black women supported him at 7%, with 12% of black supporters voting for him overall – up from 8% eight years earlier. according to Edison Research.

For the black men who defected to Trump, the shift was the culmination of growing concerns about their treatment by Democrats, a rebellion against political exclusion based on their race and a broad warming toward GOP policies.

There was also a continued feeling that Trump was someone they could relate to.

“After the President took that photo, he was able to see through the eyes of a black man.” – Duke Tanner, former undefeated professional boxer Who did Trump pardon?told The Post.

“He was really able to see through the eyes of a black man what we go through and have been through for years.”

Tanner was arrested at age 24 for a drug conspiracy, for which he was later found guilty and sentenced to life behind bars, keeping him away from his son. Since then he wrote a book during his travels,

“My son didn’t want to learn to ride a bike because I wasn’t there to teach him. He wanted me to teach him how to ride a bike—not his uncle, not his grandfather,” Tanner recalls.

But just over four years ago, Trump stepped in and “saved the day,” Tanner recalls. He also credited Trump for helping others in similar situations by signing the First Step Act, which aimed to reduce some federal sentences and reform the prison system.

Before Trump’s presidency, Tanner assumed he would probably have identified more with Democrats, but he was impressed by the policies of the soon-to-be 47th president.

“As a black man, no matter what, from childhood (when you were) you were taught that you were a Democrat,” he reflected.

If Vice President Kamala Harris had won the election, she would have been the first black female president to win the White House and the second black president overall.

She has largely avoided talk of identity politics and carefully responded to polls suggesting she is losing support from black men, and has rolled out a suite of policies aimed at courting them, including legalization of marijuana.

“It’s very important not to assume that black men are in somebody’s pocket,” Harris said at a meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists. panel in September.

This notion that black voters are expected to be Democrats afflicts many black conservatives.

“I grew up being told that if you’re black, you’re a Democrat,” former NFL player Jack Brewer told The Post.

“I was told that only rich people and racists vote Republican.”

“When I supported Trump back in 2016, I lost friends. My family members stopped talking to me. But now those same black people are calling me in 2024 and saying, “You know, I think you’re onto something.”

Brewer, who heads the eponymous Jack Brewer Foundationalso stated that there is a growing segment of “black men who reject the soft liberalism of figures like Barack and Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris and other left-wing Democrats who seek to feminize our children and our culture.”

The shift among black men is consistent with a broader gender gap along racial lines.

Harris won 53% of women, compared with 45% who backed Trump, according to Edison Research. Meanwhile, the president-elect caught 55% of the men, compared to 42% for Harris.

Trump also won a majority of Latino male voters (54%), according to the poll.

During the campaign, former President Barack Obama was caught on video grumbling about Harris’ shortcomings among the “brothers” and wondering “if they just don’t feel comfortable with the idea of ​​having a woman as president.”

His wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, also implored men to “take our lives seriously.”

“I believe they were trying to use guilt and wanted to pull the race card. But that’s not what this is about,” Tanner said of Obama’s comments.

T.V. Shannon, an adviser to Trump’s 2024 Black men’s campaign and Oklahoma’s first African-American House speaker, assessed that Black voters were a critical pillar of the so-called “Blue Wall” states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that went for Trump on Tuesday.

“Only Donald Trump deserves credit for winning the black vote like no other Republican. He was honest, offered a real plan, achieved success in his first term and, most importantly, was sincere with the community – none of which Kamala failed to implement,” Shannon explained.

“Instead, Harris showed up at black churches in typical Democratic fashion two weeks before the election, and the only plan she had was abortion on demand for black women and weed shops for black men.”

As election results approach, prominent Democrats are trying to figure out how they bled minority male voters.

“I’m going to state the obvious here: vilifying voters of color as white supremacists will not attract them back to the Democratic Party. This will drive them further into the Trump camp,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY). wrote on X.

“The purpose of politics is not to repel, but to attract. Condescension is the most powerful deterrent in politics. Voters will viscerally resent the leniency and will punish you for it at the ballot box.”

During the Obama era, some in the Democratic Party were optimistic that demographic fortunes could help ensure long-term political dominance as the party appeared to have a base of support among minority voters.

Now Republicans hope they can continue their inroads into working-class minority voters.