78% of Black men's support, but pollsters say she could have done better

The national exit poll shows 78% of Black men selected Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election, down 2% points from the last election.

Black men had been perceived as a voting bloc ripe for Donald Trump to attract after many expressed concerns a year ago about Joe Biden’s re-election efforts. An NBC News poll at that time showed that at least 20% of Black men would support Trump — an alarming number for Democrats.

Vice President Kamala Harris took over from Biden, who stepped aside under pressure in July. In the end, however, the poll from November 2023 held true: 78% of Black men selected Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election, according to the NBC News National Exit Poll. That figure was below Biden’s 2020 mark of 80%. 

For one Black pollster, the reasons behind Harris’s performance are not complicated. Alvin Tillery, a professor of political science at Northwestern University and founder of the super PAC Alliance For Black Equity, said the Harris campaign used failed strategies to engage Black men, “even after all the talk about how critical it was to get their vote.”

“It was political malpractice,” Tillery said.

Harris introduced an Opportunity Agenda for Black Men, outlining what her administration would do to support that voting constituency that seemed movable. That move gained her 10 points, to 71%, in the national polls his organization conducted two weeks before the election, Tillery said. But that effort was one of the few that addressed Black men directly, he added.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/78-black-mens-support-pollsters-say-done-better-rcna178899

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