With many Democrat-controlled cities across America in meltdown and Democratic lawmakers trying to defund police, President Trump’s approval rating among Black voters jumped to 24%, according to a new poll.
The new Hill-HarrisX survey of registered Black voters between Aug. 22-25 — which included the first two days of the Republican National Convention (RNC) convention — found nearly one on four said they approve of the job Trump is doing as president. The other 76% percent disapprove.
That’s up 9 points — or 60% — from the previous survey conducted Aug. 8-11 in which the president got 15%.
The new survey found support among Hispanic voters also rose by 2% from the last poll to 32%.
Republicans have a tough row to hoe when trying to lure Black voters. Democratic presidential candidates have received an average of nearly 90% of the Black vote for more than five decades.
Historically, the GOP has not done well. George W. Bush got 9% of the Black vote in 2000, then made a heavy outreach and soared in 2004 — to 11%. In 2012 Mitt Romney pledged to help the Black community more than had President Barack Obama (who got 95% of the 2008 vote).
“If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone. Instead, it’s worse for African-Americans in almost every way. The unemployment rate, the duration of unemployment, average income, and median family wealth are all worse for the Black community,” the Republican candidate said at an NAACP speech.
Romney ended up with 8% of the Black vote, the same percentage Trump would get in 2016. But during that campaign, Mr. Trump declared: “At the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95% of the African-American vote. I promise you. Because I will produce.”
But a Washington Post poll in June found 92% of Black registered voters support former Vice President Joe Biden over Trump (even though Biden helped author both the 1994 crime law, which Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, says “put millions of Black Americans behind bars,” and a provision in the 1986 drug law that delivered far longer sentences for those arrested for crack cocaine than powder cocaine).
The Trump campaign brought some compelling Black politicians and supporters to the RNC, all of whom delivered powerful speeches — none more so than congressional candidate Kim Klacik.
“I’m the first Black female Republican candidate running for a Maryland Congressional seat, ever,” Klacik said. “The Democrats have controlled my city, Charm City, for over 50 years and they have run this beautiful place into the ground. Abandoned buildings, liquor stores on every corner, drug addicts and guns on the street — that is now the norm in many neighborhoods.”
“You’d think Maryland taxpayers would be getting a whole lot since our taxes are out of control; instead, we are paying for decades of incompetence and corruption. Sadly, this same cycle of decay exists in many of America’s Democrat-run cities. And yet, the Democrats still assume that Black people will vote for them, no matter how much they let us down and take us for granted.
“Nope! We’re sick of it and not going to take it any more,” Klacik said. “The days of blindly supporting the Democrats are coming to an end. In Baltimore, we have the highest number of Black Republicans in the entire country running for office this election cycle.”