Harris makes up ground among Black voters as campaign nears close

Barbershops are a place where the Black community is accustomed to having direct, frank conversations. But on Monday afternoon, it’s like pulling teeth to get 49-year-old C.C., the owner of Stylinerz, located in Crenshaw, the heart of Black Los Angeles, talking. The tall man focuses on the head of the little boy over which he just passed an electric razor. He thinks for a long time about what he’s going to say before addressing the topic of Donald Trump.

“I think he is somebody who is going to shake up the system. I don’t dislike him…” he trails off. The boy, his head immobile, widens his eyes and looks up to see who made this remark.

Kamala Harris and Trump have both recently visited barbershops like this one. The Democratic candidate passed through one on Sunday, during a trip to Philadelphia, one of the key swing states on which her campaign has focused in its final lap. The barbers at Philly Cuts sat her down in their “lucky seat.” They commented on the winning history of politicians who have come through looking for their votes. Harris took the chair with a smile and a complicit look at the men around her. To a handful of young men, she pledged to increase the number of teachers of color. “Statistics say that if a Black boy has a Black teacher before the third grade, his chances of going to college rise by 13%. And if they have two, that percentage rises to 30%,” said the vice-president.

The Democratic candidate’s luck appears to be shifting. Three recent polls suggest that Harris is managing to win over Black men, young and old, in the closing days of her campaign. Over 34 million African Americans will be voting on November 5, 14% of the country’s population. ABC announced this week that the vice-president has the support of 85% of Black men. That figure is higher than the 79% who voted for Joe Biden in 2020. Trump’s support hovers between 11% and 13%. In 2020, the Republican won 19% of the Black male vote.

C.C., who asked to be identified by his initials alone, is one of the U.S. voters who is still undecided one week out from the November 5 presidential election. “I’m definitely going to vote,” he says. “At this point, I’ve only heard the candidates attack each other, but nothing about what they’re going to do for us.” The last time he voted with any conviction was in 2008, for Barack Obama. A boulevard that intersects the street on which Stylinerz is located now bears the name of the nation’s first Black president. Jokingly, C.C. says that these days in the shop, they prefer talking about religion so as to avoid the subject of politics — but that many of his clients don’t know who to vote for.

Talking points directed at Black voters have played an outsized role during the last two weeks of the presidential race. Democrats swung into action after summer polls showed that Trump had gained ground among the group and was positioned to become the Republican with the highest levels of support among African Americans, who have traditionally been aligned with the Democrats, since Richard Nixon’s victory in 1960. The star of The Apprentice has proven attractive to Black male voters aged under 44. In 2012, Obama won that group by 81%. Hillary Clinton did so by 63% in 2016 and Joe Biden by 53% four years ago. Harris remains ahead, but by the end of September, her margin had fallen to 41%.

Emily Bazelon, a senior research fellow at Yale Law School, explains that among this group there is a stark division that can also be observed in other communities of color. Harris is favored by women and Trump by men. For African Americans, level of education is also an important differential. “Black women complete higher education at a higher rate than men. Black and Latino voters with university educations are more aligned with university educated whites. We see a division by class and educational level,” says the researcher, who is also a media analyst at Slate.

Educational gap

Bazelon suspects that the educational gap in the Black community will end up making a difference at the polls: 57% of Black voters between the ages of 18 and 49 say they feel little or no satisfaction with the presidential candidates, according to a Pew Research Center survey. That percentage drops to 29% when registered voters over the age of 50 are asked.

Romey Smith, a cybersecurity engineer, thinks that many Black voters have fallen victim to disinformation. “They think that what Trump is promising won’t affect them,” says the 56-year-old, who lives in Baldwin Hills, a neighborhood in Los Angeles that since the 1950s has been seen as the “Black Beverly Hills” and has been home to celebrities like Ray Charles, Tina Turner, and Lenny Kravitz.

Smith is originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He moved west to attend college, where he met his wife. Both are “lifelong” Democratic voters. They live in an area of the city that powered Karen Bass to become the first Black mayor of Los Angeles. And they hope to do the same for Harris. “What I’m most interested in this election is supporting a candidate who is looking to improve our society and supports our community,” he says.

The Democrat’s campaign has taken a series of steps designed to appeal to Black voters’ biggest concern: the economy. Harris promises to make one million loans of up to $20,000 for young Black entrepreneurs towards starting businesses. She’s also pledged to shore up cryptocurrency regulation to protect investments, legalize recreational marijuana, and pass legislation that would address health conditions that primarily impact the Black community.

Obama has taken to the campaign trail to support Harris. During his first appearance at one of her events, he cautioned the community about the machismo that could be impacting certain voters’ view of the vice-president. “You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses. I’ve got a problem with that. Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and reasons for that. You’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is?” said the former president at the beginning of October on a visit to Pittsburgh. It was a direct, frank message. Like something you’d hear in a barbershop.

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