Preston Paris, a young Black man from a family with a strong Democratic voting history, plans to cast his first presidential ballot for Donald Trump on November 5.
Paris notes that many assume he will automatically support Kamala Harris, a fellow African American, and he often feels judged for his decision not to do so.
“But I put my faith in Trump. I prefer his foreign policy, and I prefer what his plan is for the economy,” said Paris, a 19-year-old computer science student at Georgia State University.
Georgia is a pivotal battleground state that could determine the narrow election outcome. In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump here by just 11,779 votes, with nearly one-third of the voting population identifying as Black. Recent polls have raised concerns for Harris’s campaign.
A survey published this week by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that Harris has the backing of 73.8 percent of Black voters in Georgia, while Trump garnered 7.6 percent. However, this support for Harris is significantly lower than the 88 percent Biden received in the 2020 election.
A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted this month highlighted that Harris has experienced her most significant drop in support among Black men, with only 70 percent indicating they plan to vote for her, compared to 83 percent of Black women.
A sought-after vote
In response to the polling data, Harris launched a program aimed at supporting Black men, which includes offering loans for start-up businesses and providing vocational training. To bolster her campaign, she has also enlisted the support of former President Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, who joined her at a rally near Atlanta on Thursday, alongside rock star Bruce Springsteen.
Meanwhile, Republicans are looking to exploit the dissatisfaction some Black voters feel towards the Democratic Party. Recently, dozens attended an event in downtown Atlanta hosted by far-right activist Charlie Kirk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential hopeful. While some attendees expressed they were not inclined to support Trump, they were open to hearing the Republicans’ arguments in favor of him. Others, like Paris, are passionate Trump supporters.
“Trump plans to lower taxes, eliminate tax on tips, and reduce taxes for large companies. This could also benefit people like me who hope to work for large companies; I could potentially work for Google one day,” he told AFP.
Paris added that while Trump was in office, “there wasn’t any new foreign conflict,” saying, “I don’t want to get drafted anytime soon, or ever.”
Nearby stood 23-year-old Black student JP, wearing a red cap with Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.”
This young man, who declined to give his last name, said the economy was better under Trump. More importantly, he supports the former president because of his Christian faith.
Many conservative Christians feel indebted to Trump for appointing three Supreme Court judges, which led to the end of the national right to abortion in 2022.
“Donald Trump is the one who’s more aligned with the Bible, with my beliefs,” said JP.
Jarrod Grant, a professor of political science at Clark Atlanta University, remarked that Black Americans can no longer be expected to provide unconditional support to a political party.
“One of the key questions we’re all asking is, ‘What is your Black agenda? What are you going to do for Black people?’”
He added: “Black people, we have been helping everyone else except ourselves. Everyone else gets something, but Black people don’t.”
(AFP)
