By EFE
May 29, 2024, 17:23 PM EDT
Philadelphia (USA), May 29 (EFE).- Sylvia and Chloe Youngblood and Darlene Williams are three African American women convinced that the current president of the United States, Joe Biden, is the one who can best defend the rights of their community from the White House, which is why they attended his campaign event in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) this Wednesday.
“Biden is the best option for our future. “Whoever votes against him will be voting against our interests,” Sylvia, who was waiting to access the event accompanied by her 20-year-old daughter Chloe, told EFE with conviction.
The young woman will vote for the first time in November with the conviction that she will support the Democratic Party, but she regretted that there are African Americans, especially men, who may opt for the former president and Republican candidate, Donald Trump, considering that Biden “has not done anything ”.
“There is a lot of misinformation because Biden has moved the country forward on issues such as reproductive rights, but part of the community does not have this feeling or is not interested,” he said.
The gymnasium of Girard College – a boarding school in the city that has 80% African-American students – was the setting chosen by the Democrats for the occasion, focused on intensifying their efforts to court that part of the population, which was key in Biden’s rise in the 2020 presidential election.
Cracks among African Americans
Four years later, the first cracks in this endorsement are beginning to be seen and could condition the re-election of the Democratic president in the November elections, since the expected support from the African-American community continues to be broad, but it may not be enough.
The latest survey published by The Washington Post and the consulting firm Ipsos revealed that, in the African-American community, the gap between Biden and former president Donald Trump (2017-2021) was narrowing; In 2022 the Democrat’s advantage was 55% and now it would be 48%.
To stop this rapprochement, the current president’s campaign launched ‘African American Voters with Biden-Harris’ which, with the starting signal given in the largest city in Pennsylvania, seeks to strengthen ties with this community by promoting the policies that have benefited them.
At this first event, the president was accompanied by the US Vice President, Kamala Harris, and was attended by community leaders and supporters.
Last Tuesday, the Democratic team also published a television ad and another radio ad highlighting the “great threat” that the Republican candidate poses to that part of the population and highlighting his “racist history.” which they say Trump is counting on.
“Trump is a danger to democracy”
A vision shared by Williams, who considers that “Trump is a danger to democracy,” which is why he does not consider him as an option to govern.
According to The Washington Post and Ipsos poll, the promises that Biden made in the 2020 campaign regarding criminal justice, police and voting rights are some of the issues that, after their failure, have taken their toll on the image that the leader among the African American electorate.
But, even so, between performances by a local batucada group that enlivened the day, Williams insisted that the concern of the leader of the Democratic Party towards African Americans is “sincere and genuine” and not just to “have the photo and show off.”
Another warning sign for the Democrat is the drop in interest in voting among this part of the population, which in 2020 was 74% convinced of the need to exercise their right to vote, while the current percentages are at 62%.
“We must vote, Biden needs four more years to continue building a better country and solve the disaster that Trump left in areas such as the economy,” explained the elder Youngblood.
The woman added that she feels happy under a Democratic Party government and is sure that, with the Republicans in power, she would not have had any help to pay for her recently graduated daughter’s college fees.
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