Source: FREDERIC J. BROWN / Getty
I’m excited.
Whether we’re talking about new polls that show Vice President Kamala Harris surging across the battleground state and leading nationally or the new energy and excitement on display at events like last week’s rally in Atlanta, something special is happening across America.
In less than a month, Harris has recruited nearly 200,000 volunteers, sparked nationwide grassroots organization, secured the Democratic nomination and raised $310 million. That’s twice as much as Trump raised through all of July, and roughly two-thirds of it came from first-time donors.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I’ve been calling Kamala-mentum.
But while all of that is absolutely amazing, for me, it’s not the best part.
You see, if you know me at all then you know that I firmly believe that Black voters in general and Black men in particular are going to be absolutely pivotal in November. In fact, I’ve made it clear that Black men are positioned to be the swing vote in the upcoming election.
Whether we’re talking about the historic Black voter surges of 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2019 or the 2020 returns where Black voters made the difference in key states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, the political math is undeniable: When Black voters turnout, Democrats win.
Does that mean that somehow Black voters owe Democrats something? Absolutely not. To pretend Black voters are monolithic or that Democrats can take them for granted is both ridiculous and insulting. Black votes are not owed or even won. They’re earned step by step and issue by issue and Harris has made a point of doing just that.
Earning our votes is absolutely critical and, if you need proof, look no further than the past two presidential elections. In 2016, Donald Trump managed to convince 14% of Black men to actually vote for him and he won the White House. In 2020, that number dropped to 12% and Trump lost.
Trump targeted 3.5 million Black voters in key swing states in 2016 and experts have warned us that this election was going to be worse. Unregulated AI is spreading the worst kind of disinformation conspiracy theories imaginable, from whitewashing the January 6 insurrection to trying to give Trump credit for Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
Then something special happened. The very night President Biden dropped out of the race, some 44,000 Black women joined a Zoom call supporting Harris and raised more than $1 million. Now that’s a big deal all on its own. But it was magnified the very next night when more than 53,000 Black men did the exact same thing and raised $1.3 million.
Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz cheer during a campaign rally at Girard College on August 6, 2024, in Philadelphia. | Source: Andrew Harnik / Getty
Now, as exciting as that is, there is a whole lot more work to be done.
According to the Pew Research Center, 34.4 million Black Americans will be eligible to vote in the November election. That’s 14% of all the eligible voters in America and more than 16 million of them are Black men.
Unfortunately, the data also tells us that Black men are less likely to vote than any other demographic in America. That has to change right now because, in 2024, Black men voting isn’t an Election Day plus — it’s a must.
81,660 votes in Pennsylvania, 20,682 votes in Wisconsin, 11,779 votes in Georgia and 10,457 votes in Arizona; that’s what we’re talking about. That’s less than 1% of Black men eligible to vote.
Can we do it? Yes. Can we do a whole lot more? Absolutely.
Vice President Harris knows what needs to be done and she’s ready to do it. But she needs our help, including the help of Black men. As I’ve been traveling the country hosting “Chop it Up” Black male engagement events on behalf of the DNC, I’ve been saying Black people will cast a survival vote in the coming election and that’s true. But there’s something more. Black men are casting a generational vote in this consequential election because, from job creation and education to justice reform and reproductive freedom, this election will not just determine the future of our lives, but our entire community for decades to come. For Black men, voting isn’t a plus this year…it’s a must. It’s up to us what kind of future we build in America. It’s up to us how far we go. We are the change we’ve been waiting for.
So let’s get to work.
Antjuan Seawright (@antjuansea) is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC, a CBS News political contributor, and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way.
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