Black Swing-Voters Are Moving Toward Supporting Kamala Harris

by Sharelle Burt

September 19, 2024

The race is heating up….

NBC News reported that poll results from the Howard University Initiative on Public Opinion reveal that a majority of Black voters in swing states will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November. 

The data was pulled from 963 likely Black voters in the swing or battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where 82% of those voters say they are pulling for Harris, over 12% for former President Donald Trump. Only 5% identify as undecided, while 1% plan to pick another candidate.

The results are similar to those from a 2020 exit poll in the same states, which found that 89% of Black voters supported Biden over Trump’s 9% support.

However, analysts are looking at the poll results as an opportunity to dissect the important differences throughout the Black vote. “It’s important for the range of Black voices to be heard and to be known,” co-director of the Initiative on Public Opinion and dean of the Graduate School at Howard University, Dana Williams, said. 

“I think part of the responsibility of the mainstream media is to reflect the population, and as one of the largest-growing populations of voters, we need to spend a lot more time thinking about what’s on their minds so that legislative agendas, presidential agendas, messaging on all of those fronts don’t ignore a significant voting population.”

Black men and women in the swing states — 81% — supported Harris over Trump. More seasoned voters also identify as strong Harris voters, but younger voters seem to be divided. Poll results found that 75% of voters, ages 18 to 49, would vote for Harris, while 16% supported Trump. 

Black voters with college degrees shower Harris with support by 73 points over the former President, while those without degrees support Harris by 68 points ahead of Trump. Younger and less-educated voters are more likely to support Trump, according to poll results. A little over 25% of men under 50 without a college education announced they would vote for Trump, compared to 67% who said they’ll vote for Harris. According to Fox News, the poll took place between Sept. 4 and Sept. 11, just one day after the presidential debate, with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

Participants were surveyed via phone — both landline and cell phone — and text-to-web. The Black voters claimed they were motivated to support Harris because of her values, position on certain issues, and temperament over Trump’s rhetoric driving Black voters away.