Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to tamp down concerns President Joe Biden’s campaign is struggling to win Black voters, a key constituency behind his 2020 election win.
“We’ve done really good work. Our challenge will be to let people know who brung it to them,” Harris said in an interview with ABC News.
Earlier this month, Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, a key South Carolina ally of the president, told CNN he was “very concerned” about Biden’s standing with Black voters, acknowledging in an interview that the Biden campaign has not “been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done.”
Black voters have long been a crucial bloc throughout the president’s political career, turning out strong for Biden during the 2020 Democratic primaries in South Carolina, which helped catapult him to clinch his party’s nomination and, subsequently, the presidency.
But polling has shown that, while Black voters strongly support Biden in a hypothetical matchup against his potential future opponent, former President Donald Trump, support for him has been waning – a sign that voters of color may be disaffected at the prospect of voting for Biden again.
Harris acknowledged communicating the campaign’s message to Black voters, who might be inclined to sit out 2024, would pose a challenge.
“You’ve got to earn the votes, and the votes are going to be earned based on, one, in a reelect: Have you actually responded to the needs of the community?” she added. “We have done the work that has been about bringing down unemployment, Black unemployment, to some of the lowest numbers we’ve ever seen. What we’ve done on student loan debt, we have now erased student loan debt for over three-and-a-half million people, and with more to do so we’ve delivered.
“But the…
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