Khalil Abdullah. Ethnic Media Services. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
While minority voting blocs combined to deliver the presidency to Biden, voters of African descent remain the Democratic Party's most loyal constituency in presidential elections.
In an election eve poll of the African-American vote, designed and executed by the African American Research Collaborative under the direction of Executive Director Henry Fernandez, voters of African descent - 92% women and 86% men - indicated their support for former Vice President Joe Biden. (https://electioneve2020.com/poll/#/en/demographics/black/)
President Trump's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic became the primary motivator for people of African descent to vote Democratic, according to Fernandez, who spoke at an election eve results briefing organized by America's Voice. That was true for men and women of African descent in roughly equal numbers.
The secondary motivation was their perception of Trump's lack of respect for their community and allowing an increase in overt racism in America. The third most important reason for their pro-Democratic votes was concern about the economy in general, with greater variations among voters of African descent by age.
Overall, 84% of all voters of African descent, male and female, agreed that "President Trump ignored the early warning signs of the coronavirus and because of his mismanagement, millions of Americans got sick and more than 220,000 died."
While the fact that people of African descent have been disproportionately affected by the crown bug is now well documented, the survey revealed that the searing reality of personal loss and the magnitude of the collective loss to the community and country were paramount in the minds of committed participants voting in the 2020 election.
On the question of racial animus, the gulf between African-descendant voters' perceptions of Trump versus Biden was equally evident. Some 59% of respondents of African descent felt Trump did not care about their interests and 22% felt he was hostile; only 8% felt Trump really cared about them. Conversely, 88% of respondents felt that Biden cared about them.
Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, which was a sponsor of the poll, was asked how he interpreted the doubling, from 4% to 8%, of support for President Trump among African American women voters from the 2016 election and from 13% to 17% for men of African descent. Johnson responded that the African-American vote was not monolithic, nor was it expected to be. He said the 86% rate is a clear testament to the loyalty of the Democratic Party and, more importantly, the numbers and polls show that "white supremacist behavior will not be tolerated" by this electorate.
Like Johnson, Fernandez noted that men of African descent, at 86 percent, are a core constituency for Democrats, more so than even white women who, exit polls show, voted for President Trump in greater numbers in 2020 than in the 2016 election. As one panelist bluntly put it, "White women are not a Democratic constituency."
Predictions that President Trump's signing of criminal justice reform legislation, the First Step Act, would drive a significant shift of male voters of African descent to the Republican Party were refuted by the survey, Fernandez noted.
The survey showed that people of African descent, and the other ethnic groups surveyed as well, are very concerned about current criminal justice policies, community policing and their intersection with racism. These Americans support reform through multifaceted approaches, including reducing mass incarceration, providing educational opportunities for the incarcerated, and increased job training and better access to mental health services for their communities.
However, as Johnson noted, when speaking of people of African descent, it is a myopic and misinformed view of history to focus on criminal justice as if "it is the sum total of our existence in this country."
Beyond the top three motivators, the survey also showed that people of African descent, like the other groups surveyed, largely disapproved of President Trump's anti-immigrant policies and initiatives, particularly the separation of children from their parents. At 81%, people of African descent supported designing "a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living and working here," as well as designing a process to accommodate legal entry into the United States.
