It's not the mugshot. But former President Donald Trump's team has an incredible opportunity with Black voters—if they choose to capitalize on it. Multiple polls have shown that President Joe Biden is underperforming among Black voters and voters of color generally. The pain of the "Bidenomics" economy is being felt more acutely for many of these voters, and the continued feel of being taken for granted has them looking for a change.
To his credit, Trump was one of the few Republican presidents or presidential candidates in recent memory to put in anything close to an actual effort to attract those voters. In 2020, he won 18 percent of Black men and 30 percent of Black men in the Midwest.
In another election where the Midwest will be the nation's battleground, this group of swing voters could make all of the difference.
Polls have also shown that among Republican primary voters of color (now 18 percent of the primary electorate), Trump is destroying the rest of the field. It's clear that Trump overperforms other Republican candidates among these voters. Why?
It's not the mugshot, contrary to what many want you to believe. It's not his popularity among rappers (although that doesn't hurt). It's the policies, specifically his economically moderate and populist policies.
In a recent podcast interview, the rapper YG who famously wrote the song "FDT" or "F--- Donald Trump" shared a series of conversations that he was having among poor and working class Black Americans about the former president. He described how these Americans felt like President Biden hadn't done anything to make their lives tangibly better. They contrasted that with Trump's years in office, specifically the COVID financial relief programs instituted by his administration that put money directly into the hands of the people.
Two observations from an undecided voter: If you’re legitimately from the hood, and you’re still connected to people in the hood, you’ve heard this conversation before. I’m not saying EVERYBODY feels this way, but that sentiment is real among some. Two, it’s fascinating that the… pic.twitter.com/oEz2usmvuu
— Darvio Morrow (@DTheKingpin) August 24, 2023
Their experience is backed up by data, which found that Trump's CARES Act caused property crime to decline in many parts of the country. Voters remember that, especially those who are already at the lower end of the economic spectrum.
The Trump team could have built on that success with a better rollout of its 2020 "Platinum Plan." That plan, which included providing access to half a trillion dollars in capital to Black businesses and allowing Black churches to compete for social service grants, could have been transformative. Combined with the campaign's "American Dream Plan" that would've added 500,000 Hispanic owned businesses to the economy and Trump's 2020 budget proposal to spend billions of dollars in rural America, these aggressive economic policies had the potential to be the Republican answer to the New Deal, with the difference of empowering the people instead of the government.
Instead, it became a footnote on the campaign trail. The Platinum and American Dream plans were released close to Election Day, causing the few who were aware of them to question their seriousness. Had Trump's team rolled out those plans months earlier and led an aggressive campaign in the aforementioned communities to promote them, the outcome of the election may have been different.
But now, they have a second chance. Trump has a large lead in the Republican primary and as of today, is likely to once again be his party's nominee. Biden, who won non-white voters without a college degree by over 48 points in 2020, is only up by 16 now.
If the Trump campaign physically goes into these communities to compete (and register people to vote), brings back their earlier campaign proposals (and lays out how they will work) and avoids the more extreme voices on the right who believe that anything diverse is "anti-white", they will have a real opportunity to do something historic.
If Trump wants to be president again, he may not have a choice. In polls, Biden is currently hitting his targets among white voters. The Trump team will have to make up the difference somewhere in order to win.
If Trump is able give non-white working class voters a reason to vote for him instead of choosing between Biden and staying home, he can win. He can either play for the margins like most Republicans do—or he can become the first presidential candidate to unite working class whites and nonwhites since the FDR era.
The mugshot makes for great social media fodder, but if Trump wins over nonwhite voters, it will be because of his policies.
Darvio Morrow is the CEO of the FCB Radio Network and co-host of The Outlaws Radio Show.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
