A recent New York Times podcast episode featured several Black voices expressing their hesitation and "concern" over voting for President Biden’s re-election in 2024, with some claiming Biden is "too old," and others stating that the Democratic Party has not fulfilled its promises to Black Americans.
Some respondents noted why they believe former President Trump and Republicans may attract an unprecedented portion of the African American vote next year, claiming that Black men like the party’s message of financial independence.
The Times' "The Run-Up" podcast involved its host, reporter Astead Herndon, going home for Thanksgiving and interviewing his various Black friends and family members gathered for the holiday about their current view of the Democratic Party and whether they would vote for Biden or Trump in 2024.
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Herndon said he was inspired to conduct the holiday survey after seeing a recent New York Times/Siena College poll of battleground voters which revealed that "22 percent of Black voters said they would support Donald Trump over Joe Biden in a hypothetical rematch in 2024. That’s compared to the 8 percent Trump carried nationally in 2020."
He noted that several of his family’s Black dinner guests’ testimonies tracked with this data, as several of them revealed they’re reluctant to vote for the Democratic Party.
Herndon asked about why the Black vote seems to be slipping from Democrats even though they just lived through the "high point" of Obama administration.
One guest felt the opposite of nostalgia for former President Obama, saying, "I’ve been let down by Obama. Do you hear me?"
When asked why, he continued, "I feel as though he could have done more for us. I feel as though – specifically Chicagomans, that’s where he comes from. After seeing you know, Trump and all that he did, it’s like, ‘Man, Obama, you could’ve did the same thing! You could’ve been robed too before your people!"
The guest continued, noting that Obama not doing enough for Black Americans was "disheartening," and claimed that as a result, young people he has mentored "stopped voting altogether." He added, "They lost faith in the political system."
Later in the episode, the same guest claimed he was "very, very torn" between voting for Biden and Trump, though admitted he "cannot vote for Trump."
Still, he expressed unease about picking Biden, saying, "Also voting for Biden – it also brings concern to my life as well."
A female guest told Herndon, "I probably would not vote for either. I don’t like either one." After getting resistance from fellow guests, she explained, "But it’s like, am I gonna vote for someone who I absolutely don’t want and then vote for someone who I really don’t want either?"
The host then asked the crowd, "Do you feel like you’re a Democrat more because of what Democrats do or more because of what Republicans do?" Several voices replied, admitting they were Democrats in reaction to Republicans’ agenda.
Elsewhere, Herndon asked several guests why they believe that Black men may be more open than Black women to voting for Republicans. One man responded, "The financial mobility. The Republican Party preaches somewhat of – this concept of strap up your bootstraps and kind of will your own way – to make your own way as far as financially."
"I think that appeals to more men that are disenfranchised that want to take another step financially within their communities," he said.
The same guest also hammered Democrats, saying, "I honestly feel that the Democratic Party has forgot about the Black male." He noted that the party seems to focus on appealing to Black women voters.
When Herndon asked a group of male guests, "What’s the word on Biden," one shot back, "He’s too old."
Another chimed in, saying, "We talk about the negatives of Trump often, but we don’t talk about the negatives of Biden. In a world of today’s politics where most policies are written by think tanks and groups of people, Biden hand wrote a policy that resulted in more Black people being locked up than ever in the history of America."
