Democrats need the support of black voters to stay in power. This is true in any election, and it’s particularly true in 2024.
And that’s why Joe Biden has a real problem.
In November, Patrick Ruffini, a pollster with Echelon Insights, noted that the "Democratic coalition was completely falling apart.” Not only were Trump and Biden within single digits of each other with Hispanic voters, but Trump was getting an impressive 22% of the black vote. At the time, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) insisted that he wasn’t worried about Biden's standing with black voters.
"Well, I'm not worried, I'm very concerned," he said. "I have no problem with the Biden administration and what it has done. My problem is we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done."
A few months later, it sure sounds like he is worried.
According to a report from NBC News, Clyburn is once again trying to get black voters behind Biden, but they’re not listening this time.
"Without Clyburn, there might never have been a Biden presidency,” the outlet admits. "In 2020, his endorsement revived Biden's flailing campaign. Clyburn cemented Biden's status as the favorite of black voters, helping him win the South Carolina primary and vaulting him to the party nomination."
"Now, polling shows that young black voters are peeling away from Biden in numbers that worry Democratic officials,” the report continues. "Clyburn, for his part, sounds indignant."
Indeed he does. He’s asking voters to compare Trump’s history with African American voters to Biden’s. According to Clyburn, Biden’s record rivals that of Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society."
But polling shows that they’re not buying the message. "NBC News polling in 2023 found that Black voters overall favored Biden over Trump by 73% to 17%,” the report noted. "But when it came to voters under the age of 34, the margin shrank. Among that slice of the Black electorate, Biden’s support fell to 60%; Trump’s rose to 28%. In 2020, Biden won 87% of Black voters, including 89% of Black voters under 29 and 78% of those 30 to 44."
Related: Ouch: Janet Yellen Threw Joe Biden Under the Bus Over Inflation
NBC News conceded that such a “slippage” could "prove disastrous in another tight election."
Naturally, Clyburn isn’t pulling any punches and, in a true sign of his desperation, has played the Nazi card.
“I just hope that in 2024 we are not going to find ourselves as a country falling into what Germany fell into in 1932,” Clyburn said.
James Clyburn contends that the 2024 election leaves young black voters with no practical alternative but to support Biden, which is a pretty tough argument to make when minorities are hurting more than nonwhite voters in the Biden economy. Clyburn’s messaging appears to be falling as flat as Joe Biden’s “Bidenomics” messaging, in which he has falsely claimed that the economy is strong, wages are up, inflation is under control, and prices are going down.
Another major factor in Clyburn’s lack of effectiveness this time around is, according to a Democrat insider, black voters are "not going to be a rubber stamp for the party" anymore. I suppose decades of Democrats making empty promises to the black community have taken their toll.
