Biden makes fresh appeals to Black voters, hoping they can return him to the White House
CNN By Michael Williams, Kevin Liptak and Arlette Saenz 5/17/2024
Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies. President Joe Biden is working to reverse an erosion of support among Black voters this week, placing renewed focus on a group he hopes can once again help propel him to the White House like they did four years ago.
A string of events designed to commemorate civil rights milestones and address the next generation of leaders at Martin Luther King Jr.’s alma mater comes amid polls showing Black voters flocking from Biden, frustrated by what they regard as inaction on their top priorities and turned off by his handling of the economy and the Israel-Hamas war.
In marking the anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education case that found laws promoting segregation unconstitutional, Biden hopes to reiterate his commitment to promoting and advancing historic gains by the Black community over the past 70 years.
And a speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta on Sunday, already the subject of controversy amid nationwide campus protests, will aim to uplift the next generation of Black men – a voting group where Biden’s decline in support has been most marked.
Since the Civil Rights era, Democratic presidential candidates have enjoyed wide support from Black voters. Yet leaders of several Black grassroots organizations have warned the president should not take for granted the support of Black Americans.
In the months before November, Biden is hoping both to underscore his own record and to reinvigorate the memories of all voters about what life was like under a Trump presidency.
“He has to answer two questions: Why go out and bother to vote, which is almost the same question of what’s in it for me for voters,” said Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond. “And then he has to answer the Janet Jackson test of: ‘What have you done for me lately?’”
More:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/17/politics/biden-black-voters/index.html
