{"id":32449,"date":"2022-06-04T22:16:38","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T22:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=32449"},"modified":"2022-06-04T22:16:38","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T22:16:38","slug":"black-voters-support-of-biden-softens-after-bruising-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/04\/black-voters-support-of-biden-softens-after-bruising-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Black voters support of Biden softens after bruising year"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ad_1]<\/p>\n

\n
Placeholder while article actions load<\/title><\/clippath><\/stop><\/stop><\/stop><\/lineargradient><\/defs><\/svg><\/div>\n
\n
\n

As far as Stacy Mumford is concerned, Joe Biden fulfilled the campaign promise that mattered most to her the instant he was inaugurated: simply not being named \u201cDonald Trump.\u201d But in the 18 months since then, she hasn\u2019t seen Biden deliver on the myriad promises she believes he made to her and other Black voters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

There has been little movement on police reform or voting rights protections. Gas prices<\/a> in her town of Thomasville, Ga., near the Florida border, approached $4 a gallon this week. Her most recent raise was gobbled up by the rising price of everything, including food and rent. And she worries about the students at the school where she works \u2014 because, she says, gun control is another thing Biden has not successfully delivered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mumford believes the president is well-intentioned and that his campaign promises were made in good faith. But she\u2019d hoped that a politician who spent 36 years as a senator and eight as vice president \u201cwould have more of a deft hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not really holding up to his end of the bargain,\u201d said Mumford, 49, a school nutritionist. \u201cSome things he\u2019s promised. Some things he\u2019s done. But we are still struggling as a whole. We are all still struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Like Mumford, roughly 9 in 10 Black voters supported Biden in the 2020 election<\/a>, but a Washington Post-Ipsos poll<\/a> of more than 1,200 Black Americans this spring finds what appears to be diminishing support: 7 in 10 approve of President Biden\u2019s job performance, and fewer than one quarter <\/b>\u201cstrongly approve.\u201d A 60 percent majority of Black Americans say Biden is keeping most of his major campaign promises, but 37 percent say he is not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Read Washington Post-Ipsos poll results<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Writ large, the poll shows much stronger support for Biden in the Black community than among most others groups. <\/b>But that support is growing less intense among this loyal constituency heading into the midterm elections, and younger Black Americans are significantly less enthusiastic about the president than older ones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Black registered voters still overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates in the midterms<\/a>, according to the poll, but they are less likely to say the election matters to them than they did before the Biden-Trump contest, and fewer say they are certain to vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Many also expressed relatively little faith in the institution of voting itself: <\/b>Black Americans are less confident that all eligible citizens will have a fair opportunity to vote than White or Hispanic Americans who were asked the same question.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Black voters are particularly important to the president and the political party he leads. Voters like Mumford helped propel Biden to an 11,779-vote victory in Georgia, the first time a Democratic presidential candidate prevailed in the state since 1992. And two months after Biden won the White House, two Democrats narrowly won Georgia\u2019s Senate seats, handing the party what many Black voters hoped would be a governing majority large enough to enact sweeping changes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But those changes have been slow in coming, particularly on issues that matter to Black Americans. That\u2019s in part because the Senate is split 50-50 between the parties (with Vice President Harris breaking ties), and passage of most bills through the chamber requires 60 votes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Efforts to reform police \u2014 demands heard nationwide after the murder of George Floyd \u2014 stalled in Congress<\/a> and ended with an executive order<\/a> that Biden acknowledged did not go as far as he\u2019d hoped even as he signed it. Rising inflation has eaten away at people\u2019s incomes and threatens Biden\u2019s political prospects<\/a>. The federal government has done little to bolster voting protections, despite a raft of state legislation<\/a> that activists say puts obstacles between Black people and voting booths.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Asked about the failure of a Democratic voting right effort in the Senate<\/a>, 46 percent of Black Americans say they are disappointed and another 15 percent say they are angry. But among those with negative reactions, 84 percent blame Biden \u201ca little\u201d or \u201cnot at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

While several of the people polled who were later contacted by The Post expressed frustration at the slow or nonexistent progress, many stressed that the blame did not lie solely with the president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Overall, Biden\u2019s 70 percent job approval rating among Black Americans remains much higher than among the public overall. In an April Post-ABC poll<\/a>, 42 percent of all Americans approved of Biden while 52 percent disapproved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

About two-thirds of Black Americans (66 percent) say that Biden is sympathetic to the problems of Black people in this country while 32 percent say he is not. That\u2019s a decrease from 74 percent who said Biden was sympathetic in 2020, but still contrasts sharply with how Black Americans see the Republican Party. Three-quarters of Black Americans say the Republican Party is racist against Black Americans; a quarter say the same about the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Republican leaders take issue with the notion that their party is racist and argue that their policies, from low taxes to abortion<\/a>, are better for the Black community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThere are voices that say if you\u2019re a poor, Black, single mother like mine, abortion is your best option,\u201d Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the lone Black Republican in the Senate, tweeted last month. \u201cThey must not know that the story of African Americans is one of victory, overcoming odds, & triumph in the face of tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But there is little doubt that most Black Americans support Democrats, <\/b>even in the face of mounting frustrations. Rikki Johnson, a retired police officer from Fredericksburg, Va., said he agrees with many of Biden\u2019s policy positions but believes the president has been outmaneuvered by a Republican Party set on obstruction and let down by a Democratic Party stymied by disunity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThe Republicans are not going to let (Biden) be successful because it terribly diminishes their chances for 2024,\u201d said Johnson, 60. But he said Biden has also similarly hobbled by his own party and \u201ccouldn\u2019t pull the party together to have one thought. If you think about how the Republican Party always attacks, they attack together. The Democratic Party doesn\u2019t attack like a fist, they attack like five fingers. They go in different directions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Deanna Whitlow, a 20-year-old college student in Chicago, said she started out with low expectations for Biden, since he followed \u201csomeone as extreme as Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cI honestly feel like I can\u2019t be too picky,\u201d said Whitlow, adding that she approved of Biden\u2019s efforts to expand voting rights and advance climate issues, but believed not enough progress had been made on police reform and abortion rights. She described herself as a Democrat, but said Biden wasn\u2019t her first choice for president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s good that he\u2019s tried, but with Congress working against him, I\u2019m not surprised [that] nothing grand has happened,\u201d Whitlow said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But many Black Americans do not let Biden entirely off the hook. They say he has not done enough, for example, to push through changes to a criminal justice system that they widely condemn as slanted against minorities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Just over 1 in 5 Black Americans say Biden has done \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201ca good amount\u201d to reduce discrimination in the criminal justice system, while 76 percent say he has done \u201clittle\u201d or \u201cnothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Biden has acted unilaterally in some areas to implement police reform. His Justice Department implemented a ban on chokeholds and carotid restraints for federal officers, began requiring agents to wear body cameras<\/a>, and severely limited the use of \u201cno-knock warrants\u201d like the one that factored into the 2020 killing of Louisville resident Breonna Taylor<\/a>. But because they are presidential orders and not laws, those changes affect only federal officers and agents, not the thousands of local and state police departments across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Biden also recently pardoned three people<\/a> and commuted the sentences of 75 nonviolent drug offenders, amid calls for leniency in a system that disproportionately affects people of color.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Age continues to be a dividing line in Black people\u2019s opinions of Biden, continuing a pattern that was first evident in the 2020 presidential primaries<\/a>. Biden\u2019s approval rating peaks at 86 percent among Black Americans ages 65 and older, but drops to 74 percent among those ages 40-64 and to 60 percent among those ages 18-39. Biden\u2019s approval rating is also much higher among Black registered voters than among those who are not registered to vote, 86 percent vs. 40 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

While Biden is not on the ballot, Black voters\u2019 opinions of him mirror their opinions of other Democrats who are up for election. Asked who they support in congressional elections, 88 percent of Black registered voters say they would support the Democratic candidate in their district, similar to Biden\u2019s share of the Black vote in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But just about half of Black voters, 49 percent, say the outcome of this November\u2019s election matters \u201ca great deal\u201d to them, down from 77 percent who said the same thing about the presidential election in June 2020. Similarly, the share of Black voters who say they are \u201cabsolutely certain to vote\u201d has dropped from 85 percent in 2020 to 62 percent this year, a 23-point drop that is larger than the 12-point drop among White voters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Just about half of Black Americans (49 percent) say the things that Biden is doing as president are either \u201csomewhat\u201d or \u201cvery\u201d good for African Americans, while 12 percent say what he\u2019s doing is somewhat or very bad and 37 percent say the things he is doing are neither good nor bad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Biden has said he is running for reelection, and as the 2024 Democratic primary approaches, 43 percent of Black Democrats say they would prefer Biden to have the nomination, followed by Harris at 29 percent. Seven percent picked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had 2 percent of respondents volunteer his name, and former first lady Michelle Obama had 1 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mumford, the school nutritionist from Thomasville, said she is certain to vote in the midterms and in the 2024 presidential election. She has always voted, she said, and considers it her duty as a citizen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

She said she does not align herself with either party, but routinely leaned Democratic in the years of Trump. Now that Trump is gone, she would like to see Democrats govern with the same determination \u2014 even ruthlessness \u2014 as Republicans did under Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cTrump, to his credit, he kept some of his word,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t agree with a lot of it. And it was his racism that I didn\u2019t like. And throwing a temper tantrum in the White House. But he did get results.\u201d (Trump\u2019s defenders say his unorthodox positions and unconventional leadership style are part of what many Americans appreciate about him.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Post-Ipsos poll<\/a> was conducted through the Ipsos KnowledgePanel from April 21 through May 2 among a random national sample of 1,248 non-Hispanic Black adults with a partially overlapping sample of 977 U.S. adults. Results among Black Americans and Americans overall have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

[ad_2]
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ad_1] Placeholder while article actions load As far as Stacy Mumford is concerned, Joe Biden…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32451,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32449\/revisions\/32451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}