During the Democratic National Convention in August, a couple dozen attendees shuffled into a conference room inside a Hyatt Regency for a seminar on "Unseen Black Men" and "How to Reach Them."
Morale in the room was low. Even during Democrats' post-Biden-dropout honeymoon, black Democratic activists and convention attendees were still worried about young black men staying home on Election Day rather than pulling the lever for Kamala Harris.
"You're not going to get a secret sauce in this room from me today on black men," said the seminar leader Mondale Robinson, the mayor of Enfield, N.C. For Robinson, the solution is simple. "Even if I told you the No. 1 issue or the No. 2 or 3 issue for black men who don't vote regularly, it's not going to be enough," Robinson said. "If you don't have a relationship with them, they're not going to see you." Finding trusted messengers, he said, is key to turning them out to the polls.
Two months later and the Democratic ticket appears to be in full-blown panic mode over Harris's polling performance among black men — and men in general. The trend comes after President Joe Biden, whom South Carolina's black voters helped vault to the nomination back in the 2020 Democratic primaries, was similarly bleeding support among black male voters earlier this year in surveys.
Harris's overtures to black men in recent days include campaign pledges to provide 1 million forgivable loans of up to $20,000 for "black entrepreneurs and others"; legalize marijuana at the federal level; federally ban price-gouging of "food and groceries"; launch a "National Health Equity Initiative" focused on illnesses, such as diabetes and sickle-cell disease, that disproportionately affect black men; lower rent; and give $25,000 in tax credits to first-time black homeowners. She dubbed the effort her "Opportunity Agenda for Black Men."
The GOP ticket views that agenda as evidence that the vice president is . . .
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