Catherine Rusoff
Racine, Wisconsin – Sheree Robinson was thrilled to be invited to join President Joe Biden’s motorcade during his trip to Wisconsin on Wednesday. The Black mother of two and longtime Racine resident said education funding from Biden’s American Rescue Plan allowed her to earn an HSED, a High School Equivalency Diploma.
“Our conversation was so natural,” she said of the president. “He definitely has my vote, and I’m going to talk to everyone else and tell them he needs their vote too.”
Asked if she thought he would win in November, Robinson responded: “Why wouldn’t he?”
Biden has an edge over former President Donald Trump in outreach and organizing in support of Black communities. As part of a $14 million ad buy announced Tuesday, the Biden campaign said there would be a seven-figure investment in ad buys across Black, Hispanic and AAPI media. The campaign says it will also have 46 offices across the swing state, with headquarters in Milwaukee, a city where 39% of the population lives. Black according to the US census.
The Black vote is a crucial bloc of support for Biden, and national polls have shown a slight but still significant decline in enthusiasm. A 2020 CBS News national exit poll showed that 87% of Black voters supported Biden. A April Washington Post-Ipsos Poll showed a decrease in the number of black voters who said they were “absolutely certain to vote,” falling from 74% in June 2020 to 62% in April.
And the dispute in the state is fierce. A CBS News April Wisconsin Poll found that 50% of likely voters supported Trump, while 49% supported Biden. Attendance in Milwaukee declined slightly from 2016 to 2020, according to local news outlet Wisconsin Clock.
“Even if only 85% of black voters instead of 90% vote for Biden, the additional turnout helps Democrats,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The No. 1 concern is whether he will get a smaller share of the black vote than he did last time.”
After announcing a $3.3 billion investment from Microsoft for a new data center in Racine County, Biden visited the Dr. John Bryant Community Center on Wednesday to meet with a room full of Black voters from Wisconsin and volunteers who were being trained in the use of an electoral advertising application.
In a memo, the campaign said the event is the first in a series of commitments the campaign has set aside in May “that focus on deepening our organizing presence in key constituencies that will be critical in this election.”
“When I run [my home state of] Delaware – no joke – I get 90% of the African American vote in my off years and [presidential election] years, because you are the most loyal electorate,” he told the crowd.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
At this stop, Andrea Dyess spoke with Biden about her battle with cancer 14 years ago and how health care costs nearly bankrupted her. She praised the Affordable Care Act and also said democracy was a key issue for her vote in November.
She let out a sigh when asked what she thought of Biden’s chances in November.
“Wisconsin is a tough state. But let’s make it blue,” she said, adding that her community in Racine has shown “strong” support for Biden.
Janet Mitchell, a 77-year-old black voter in Racine, felt that voters her age would vote for Biden, but worried that the response to Israeli attacks in Gaza would alienate younger voters.
“I think what’s happening in Israel has taken eyes off what was supposed to be an easy race for Biden,” Mitchell said of younger voters. “It will take all of us to get Biden back into office.”
Although the Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee this summer, the Trump campaign has not yet said whether it has local offices in the state or what its plans are to reach black voters.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
As Biden’s campaign increases outreach to Black voters, 34 miles north in Franklin Heights, a northwest Milwaukee neighborhood, members of the nonprofit “Black Leaders Organizing Communities” say they have come across apathetic voters. who feel the president hasn’t done enough on the economy, education and police reform.
“Biden is not doing what we ask of him…he needs to show us more,” said Antonio Hampton, a 45-year member of Black Leader Organizing Communities (BLOC). “We are fighting for him to show us more, we want him there. Because we don’t want Trump inside.”
“When we are here campaigning, talking to people, they say ‘my vote doesn’t count’. Because when they go out and vote… nothing changes for them,” said 43-year-old BLOC member Broshea Jackson. “Our job is to educate them and make them understand why their vote is so valuable.”
Tamer Malone, a 26-year-old who worked with BLOC to support Biden during the 2020 election, felt his tenure was “disappointing” on education and police reform, but said local government officials also share some of the blame. fault.
She added that some Black voters in her community have been leaning toward Trump because of the stimulus checks they received at the height of COVID-19 — though Malone notes that “they were going to be distributed anyway because it was a pandemic.”
“They’re kind of tossed around right now,” she said of Biden and Trump in the state. “Biden for me is ahead by a hair [in Wisconsin]. And that hair is the black and brown community. He just needs to step forward. There is so little time to change our community and make us feel like he is worth our vote and our voice.”
