A senior official in President Joe Biden‘s re-election campaign shrugged off on Sunday warning signs that black voters are turning away from the incumbent.
Quentin Fulks, who serves as Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, took on a question from ABC’s Martha Raddatz about why the support for Biden among black voters is dipping — as is shown in polling.
“I think what a lot of people are expressing is urgency. They sense a sense of urgency because of the threat that Republicans posed to, you know, America right now and that’s precisely why the president and the vice president are running for reelection to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” Fulks said on “This Week.”
“When it comes to African American voters, I want to be very clear about this, that no administration has done as much for the African American community, as President Biden and Vice President Harris,” Fulks added.
Polling in recent months indicates black voters, particularly young people, are not as energized about Biden as they were in 2020 and may be warming up to former President Donald Trump, who is running again as the GOP frontrunner, including in battleground states.
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), a leading black congressman who supports Biden, recently said he is “very concerned” about black voter turnout and breaking through the “MAGA wall” to emphasize certain acts such as cancelling student loan debt. Vice President Kamala Harris has also emphasized messaging is a key challenge.
Fulks talked about the need to tout areas in which the Biden team believes progress has been made in addressing the concerns of the black community — such as addressing the racial wealth gap — and stopping Republicans from “ripping away” healthcare.
“We have to continue to take this message directly to African-American voters and our campaign has done that.” He added, “We’ve come out of the gate with very large buys targeted at African American voters, organizing in their communities to send a clear signal that one, we don’t take them for granted, two, we recognize that we need to earn their support in this campaign, and communicate with them all the way.”