Pastor Melanie DeBouse spent a colder afternoon last week in a Philadelphia park trying to dispel potential political apathy from among her neighbors — many of whom are Black — by encouraging them to vote. Messages like "Vote! It’s An Act of Hope!" and "Every Vote Is Sacred" on signs nearby twined the political call to action around the nomenclature of religious tenets.
"We are here today to answer the question: 'Voting? Why bother?'" DeBouse said into a megaphone, according to Politico. "And our answers will lead you to the reality that your life and your freedoms depend on it."
Voting for Democrats at higher rates than any other racial group, Black voters form the bedrock of the Democrat electorate. After speaking with a number of mostly Black elected officials, strategists and activists in battleground states, however, Politico found that Democrats are increasingly worried that Black voter turnout could fall in November, along with the Democrats’ prospects.
If Black voters failed to turn out this year, Democrats’ chances in closely watched gubernatorial and Senate races across the country would be seriously damaged, if not outright demolished. Just 25% of registered Black voters described themselves as "extremely enthusiastic" about voting in the midterm elections, compared to about 37% of white voters and 35% of Hispanic voters, according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll released last week.
Democrat strategists told Politico they are worried, in particular, about a lack of enthusiasm this year among young Black people and Black men of all ages.
Since playing a crucial role in electing President Joe Biden two years ago, some Black voters are concerned that not enough change has occurred when it comes to the economy, gun violence, voting rights, and criminal justice reform, the strategists said.
According to the Politico-Morning Consult survey, 69% of Black voters approve of Biden’s job performance, which is considered insufficient to guarantee stalwart support for Democrat candidates.
"The polling says we should be concerned about Black turnout," Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director of POWER Interfaith told Politico. "There’s a level of frustration that folk are experiencing right now, right? Let’s just be honest: For a lot of folk, they’re seeing incidents of gun violence that’s permeated their community. People are struggling with the economic conditions."
Being anxious about declining Black turnout is a cyclical phenomenon for many Democrats, that frequently doesn’t happen, according to Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, a group that focuses on getting Black voters to the polls.
"It’s like Groundhog Day," Shropshire said. "Six weeks out, people stick their heads out of their holes, and say, We might have a problem with Black voters."
While Democrats need to ramp up their efforts to communicate with Black voters now, she said they "should’ve started a long time ago."
Some Black Democrats fear the party is relying too heavily on anger over the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended federally-protected abortion rights. Cyrus Garrett, who served as the African American political director for the Democratic National Committee, told Politico that when the Democrats "drive only on abortion for a number of months, that sounds tone-deaf to Black men who have other issues on the table."
"Should Democrats be concerned about African-American turnout going into this midterm?" Cornell Belcher, a Democrat pollster, asked. "Hell yes, they should be. History shows there’s a pullback. We shouldn’t be surprised by this … you can’t just count on Roe being overturned to change that fundamental dynamic."
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