Biden And Harris, In Rare Joint Appearance, To Launch ‘Black Voters for Biden’ Campaign

The Biden campaign has stated its strategy to appease Black voters is a little different from past Democratic campaigns.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will make a rare appearance together to garner the support of Black voters in Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state.

The country’s top leaders are scheduled to land in Philadelphia on May 29 to counter former President Donald Trump’s attempts to drive a wedge between the same voter demographic that helped put Biden in the White House in 2020. The Biden team is promising the rally will be one of the largest to show the candidate’s commitment while a jury in New York prepares to issue a verdict in Trump’s hush-money case.

The strategy to appease Black voters in 2024 differs slightly from past Democratic campaigns. The Biden campaign will targe a certain voter group whose support has been counted from the beginning over pushing the same narrative just ahead of the election.

Out of that strategy, comes “Black Voters for Biden,” which NBC News calls the “most sustained voter outreach of the campaign to date.”

Biden and Harris will be joined by several Black lawmakers and dignitaries, including Pennsylvania’s first Black man to hold the title of lieutenant governor, Austin Davis; Philadelphia’s first Black female mayor, Cherelle Parker; Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford (D-NV); and Maryland’s first Black governor, Wes Moore.

The support of Pennsylvania’s Black voters is vital. The state’s 270 electoral votes pushed Biden over the threshold in 2020. He secured 81% of the vote in Philadelphia. It might not be as easy in 2024. City Council member Isaiah Thomas, who created a local initiative called “Black Men Vote,” mentioned seeing some resistance from younger Black men in the community.

He cites misinformation, not just found online, as a key challenge. “Every time I go on social media, I’m trying to watch a game at night. I try to listen to some music or some YouTube or something like that; it’s everywhere,” Thomas said. “I’m always getting bombarded with how bad Biden is.”

Similar sentiments were expressed in other cities and states, including Georgia. Organizers with the Black Voter advocacy group, New Georgia Project, are concerned about the slow-growing support of President Biden from younger men. “Young Black men are more likely to say that they will vote for Trump,” researcher Ranada Robinson said. “But, what I am most concerned about this year is that about 30% was undecided at the time of our poll.”

She said a major reason is online misinformation, which pushed Biden’s interest away. “…There are some narratives that misplace the credit for some of the wins that we’ve seen in America.”

However, the Biden campaign is relying on “trusted messengers” like Moore to help carry a positive message to voters still on the fence about who to vote for in November. Moore, who joined Biden in Georgia in March 2024 during his post-State of the Union tour, said he expects to join the President on the road regularly to be an advocate for Biden amongst Black voters.

While it sounds like an ideal plan, Black GOP lawmakers like Tim Scott are calling the strategy “insulting.” During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Scott trashed a recent ad from Biden’s campaign that targets Black voters and praised the work Trump has done for the Black community.

“Well, here’s what I can tell you, is that under Donald Trump, we were better off,” he said. “The only person I have seen restraining Black folks economically is the Joe Biden economy. So, I find it quite insulting to suggest that Joe Biden does not have serious concerns when his own vice president, Kamala Harris, said he supported segregation.”

According to The Hill, before the 2020 election, Biden told Charlamagne tha God during an interview on The Breakfast Club that if he supports Trump, “then you ain’t Black.”