New Delhi: With the US Presidential elections getting more and more close, the race between the two candidates, Democratic Party’s Kamala Harris and Republican Party’s Donald Trump has become an extremely close one. Both have been relentlessly campaigning to garner as many votes as possible and have been wooing Latino and Black voters in this pursuit.
Since US President Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate for the Presidency and announced Kamala Harris as his replacement, the contest between her and Donald Trump has been stiff. In terms of the Black and Latino votes, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll the gap between Harris and Trump has closed down significantly with Harris currently at 45 per cent and Trump at 44 per cent, way closer than what the poll found in August. Then Harris led by 5 percentage points to Trump. Since then, Harris lost ground among Latino voters, who now support Trump 49 per cent to 38 per cent. Among Black voters, Harris stands at 72 per cent to Trump’s 17 per cent. While black and latino voters have traditionally supported the Democrats things now seem to have turned in the favour of the Republicans and Trump considerably. In Joe Biden’s previous victory as well, a Pew Research Center analysis concluded that he was backed by 92 per cent of Black voters and 59 per cent of Latino voters. Trump though has shifted the tide, especially with Hispanic and Black men voters by focusing on the economy and crime.
Of fine margins and changing allegiances
Republican Party candidate Donald Trump is known to not follow traditional mores of US politics and has consistently been courting both Latino and Black voters even though they are considered to be Democratic Party’s vote base. According to various trends and polls, he has found some success in this by focussing on economic recovery and by pointing out the flaws in the current administration’s handling of the economy.
While loyal to the Democratic young men in both the latino and black voter groups have come to realise the stagnancy that the Democratic Party’s rule has resulted in the economy. Huge parts of the American Midwest have been unhappy with the economic crisis and deindustrialization, and seem to be slowly shifting to the Republican fray.
According to projections by the Pew Research Centre, black Americans are projected to account for 14.0 per cent of eligible voters in the upcoming US elections. They are expected to play a pivotal role in deciding the outcome of the Presidential elections. In Georgia, a closely watched swing state, Black Americans account for a third of eligible voters and in several such seats, the fine margin of their vote can go a long way in deciding the winner.
African-American supporters of the Republican Party have also come together in the “Black Men for Trump Advisory Board” and in an official statement have said that there is nothing communitarian about their vote, adding, “Black Americans are not a monolith, and we don’t owe our votes to any candidate just because they ‘look like us’.” This is being resounded in many parts of the US where the monolithic character of the black voters has often come to be seen as a primary Democratic Party voter base. Donald Trump is making changes to this narrative and this could play a significant part if he eventually wins the election.
The issue with Latino voters also has some similarity with that of the black voters. Trump’s batting for economic issues and crime has many latino voters, again especially young men convinced in his rhetoric. Among Trump’s Latino supporters, the economy, violent crime and immigration are the three most pivotal issues related to their votes. Meanwhile for Latinos who back Harris apart from the economy, health care is a major point of support. Here immigration is important but not as much as it is for Trump’s latino voting base.
Latino voters are now the nation’s second-largest group of eligible voters in the US after White voters and their outsized influence is clearly visible in this year’s elections. The issue of immigration has thus also become important and both Harris and Trump have articulated their views on this. With time, their eyeing of both latino and black votes has become significant and the win of either now would be largely dependent on these two groups.
