CNN commentator Shermichael Singleton pushed back Tuesday with the outlet’s host on whether former President Barack Obama could sway more Black male voters to support Vice President Kamala Harris with his Democratic National Convention (DNC) speech.
Obama is scheduled to address Democratic delegates and supporters Tuesday evening, as the DNC enters its second night in Chicago. Singleton said the “erosion” of black male voters’ “economic power” has hurt their support for Democrats, acknowledging that by bringing Obama on stage, Democrats may “presume” he could attract more black male voters.
“I can certainly understand why Democrats would presume that — first African-American man [who was] president, right? A lot of black men respect the former president. A lot of them were excited about him when he first ran. I remember being in college [at] that time,” Singleton said. “However, black men have seen in many ways erosion of their economic power.”
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“Black men are not graduating college at the same rates of black women. Men in general are not graduating from college or ascertaining the same economic gains in many regards, as women. So I do think that is a part of the reason you have seen since the end of former President Obama’s tenure a movement of men broadly speaking to Republicans,” Singleton said.
Singleton continued to state how data within the last year has shown that “young college men are starting to move more to the conservative side,” concluding on how the trend is “something that‘s slowly becoming crystallized.”
Polls between Harris and former President Donald Trump have tightened both nationally and with key voting blocs, as Democrats struggled to maintain their stronghold on groups like young adults, Hispanics and black voters. While Harris is garnering more support from black voters than President Joe Biden had before ending his reelection bid in July, she still isn’t performing as well as Obama did during his 2012 reelection.
Exit polls from the 2012 presidential election showed Obama secured 93% of the Black vote in his race against Republican candidate Mitt Romney. However, a recent CBS News/YouGov poll conducted from August 14 to 16 found only 79% of registered Black voters surveyed plan to support Harris in November.
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