According to a recent poll, President Joe Biden is bleeding support with Black voters as he heads into the 2024 campaign season.
While Biden maintains support from Black voters, it has declined sharply since taking office and is accompanied by much less enthusiasm. According to the Associated Press, about 58 percent approve of his job handling. Only 41 percent of Black adults said they wanted the president to run for a second term, with only 55 percent saying they were likely to support him the general election.
The figures sharply contrast with his first few months in the presidency, when nine out of ten Black voters approved of the job he was doing. The voters also fell far below Democrats’ overall sentiment, showing that 81 percent would “definitely” or “probably” support President Biden if he were the nominee.
“Honestly, I feel like right now America is in a state of emergency,” South Carolina State University student, Destiny Humphreys, to the AP. “We need some real change.”
However, other individuals interviewed by the publication in South Carolina — the first presidential primary state for Democrats — felt differently.
“Biden has proven himself in the last few years, and I’ll be voting for him in the next election,” said lobbying and public affairs specialist, LaJoia Broughton.
The southern state proved pivotal for President Biden during the 2020 election and helped change the tide, putting him on the path toward the White House. Currently, the conflicting views of Black voters could prove troublesome during the general election.
“He wouldn’t have been president without us,” said recent graduate of the University of South Carolina, Courtney McClain to the publication. McClain voted for Biden in 2020.
“For people to vote, and to be eager to vote, you have to actually want to vote for the person,” said Ace Conyers, a 22-year-old student at South Carolina State.
Black voter support falls, Republican candidates see slight uptick
While Black voters’ support for President Biden fell, GOP candidates have seen a slight upturn in their support.
In South Carolina, longtime Democrat Representative James Clyburn helped drive Biden’s trajectory and was arguably the most critical figure of his 2020 campaign.
The president later returned the favor. After winning the election, Biden nominated the congressman’s daughter, former teacher Clyburn Reed, as federal co-chair of the Southwest Crescent Regional Commission in 2021. In December of the same year, the Senate narrowly approved her nomination for the position. In the position, Reed works to relieve economic hardship in the southeastern United States.
Rep. Clyburn has enthusiastically endorsed a second term for Biden. “I’m all-in for President Biden,” said Clyburn to CBS earlier this year. “I think he’s demonstrated in these two years…that he is deserving of re-election. And I do believe he will be re-elected irrespective of who the Republicans, they put up.”
