The scene created when a Republican senator beat the first black woman nominated by the Supreme Court with presidential ambitions was created after 47 Republicans voted against her on Thursday, GOP. May have seemed like clear evidence that the black vote was withdrawn in November this year.
It’s far from that. With rising inflation, stratospheric gas prices, prolonged frustration with Covid, and new fears of war in Ukraine, the Republicans show that they are increasingly fascinated by the Biden administration after the Obama and Trump era. See a new opening to strip some of the black voters.
Thanks to Gerrymandering, Republicans don’t have to beat too many black voters to influence a small number of races, and dozens of Black Republican candidates (record numbers) reshape the party’s pitch. doing.
If anything, the Republican treatment of Supreme Court candidates is Judge Ketanji Brown JacksonWas a testimony of the party’s confidence that, among so many powerful political forces and more consumptive public opinion, their treatment of her confirmation was simply not so important.
“I don’t think the blacks who turned this off had voted for the Republican Party anyway,” said Wesley Hunt, a Black Army veteran, Republican newcomer, and aiming for a bright red Texas House seat.
Senate Republican leaders warn colleagues to keep the agenda civilian and honest before the battle for confirmation, and a group of white Republican Inquisitors turns off voters in the election year. I was obviously worried about that. But if Democrats still believe that Judge Jackson’s rough treatment will enliven black voters to vote for the Democrats in November of this year, they are likely to be disappointed.
For frustrated voters of all colors struggling to pay invoices and fill tanks, the November vote may simply be an opportunity to vote against a powerful party.
“We’re not a monolith,” said Jennifer Ruth Green, a veteran of the Black Air Force who is running for Congress in northwestern Indiana as a Republican. “We see inflation and gas prices. Voters are not stupid.”
In Gary, Indiana, hairdresser Roshawn Knowles, 42, who is resting at a Bilco hairdresser, has summarized how a confirmation hearing will take place, given that she voted this fall. .. She said she felt despair when she was cross-examined by a white senator who she believed the skilled black woman lacked the intelligence and restlessness of Judge Jackson.
“Being in a room full of whites asking her about what she learned and where she learned-you know, it didn’t fit me well,” Knowles said. .. “She should have been treated as white,” she added.
But after she refused to be shot, she said the vaccination obligations cost her her job as a property manager for the Housing Corporation. Stimulation checks have kept too many people out of the workforce.When President Biden?? “He’s not doing anything,” she said. “What did he do?”
Knowles decided to vote for the Republican Party this fall, as he voted for Hillary Clinton four years ago, twice for Barack Obama, and then for Donald J. Trump in 2020. He said he was devoted.
Republicans on the track of the campaign and on the airwave are imposing an image of democratic leadership declining, with no clue as to how to deal with economic uncertainty, persistent pandemics, and rising crime. Whenever Republican officials are asked about the party’s strategy for black voters, they always call on a small number of elected Republican officials and candidates to make a pitch.
But, needless to say, the following black Republican candidates: Mr. Green When John JamesCandidates for Michigan House seats do not advertise their party affiliation, only their careers. This shows that Republican brands remain toxic in some areas.
And Republican outreach is nothing more than catching black dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party.
Paris Dennard, director of black media affairs at the Republican National Committee, said the party has opened eight community centers nationwide to attract black voters. Candidates like Mr. Hunt, he said, are evidence that the party’s message encourages the execution of black Republicans.
But a message focused on the shortcomings of the Democratic Party deprives black voters of hearing about the policies they really want, says the next author, Leah Wright Rigour.Black Republican Solitude: Practical Politics and Pursuit of Power.. “
“This is a very effective strategy, but it’s also insidious,” said Dr. Rigger, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University. “It only works if you are dissatisfied with the Democratic Party.”
But it also works for black voters who were significantly united behind the Democratic Party in the days of Obama and Trump.
“I don’t think Biden is actually in office,” Robert Sanders ridiculed when he cut his hair at Gary and repeatedly criticized the 79-year-old president for his political rights. “I think he is escorted through the office.”
The Softening of Mr. Biden’s approval among black voters A clear warning to the Democratic Party. Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, the Republican polling firm that conducted the survey, said the president’s approval of black registered voters dropped from 83% last summer to 62% in March in the NBC News poll, the Supreme Court. He said he was not affected by the battle. With the Democratic Heart Research.
The percentage of black voters who said they strongly supported the president’s performance dropped from 46% last April to August to 28% last month. And the strength of support predicts the turnout of elections.
Black Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher said voting was back in a time before Obama actively energized black voters and Trump negatively energized them. .. Prior to 2008, he said it was normal for 12% to 14% of black voters to vote for the Republican Party.
“More problematic is the lack of energy levels among young voters, especially young African-Americans,” said Belcher, who said young voters brought the House of Representatives to the Democratic Party in 2018. “For now, it’s unexcited, unfascinated, frustrated, young voters, more like 2014 and 2010 voters than 2018, which is disastrous.”
Democratic officials say they are responding with a black voter mobilization project that started earlier than the previous mid-cycle. Last spring, the Democratic Parliamentary Campaign Committee hired organizers of five fierce battle states to focus on key Democratic members.On Thursday, the committee Announcing a new round of ad purchases With the black press.
Commission spokesman Chris Taylor said Republican efforts to open a courtroom for black voters are dishonest given the party’s voting records on pandemic bailouts, criminal justice reform, and clean air and water laws. Said that.
“Almost all Republicans in Congress opposed our priorities,” said black Taylor.
Due to the boundaries of the Gerrymandering district, most Republican candidates do not need many (if any) black voters. But in districts like First in Indiana, the Democratic lean is narrow and the Republican target is behind, so Republican challengers expect to break into black voters, or at least have low turnout. need to do it.
Judge Jackson’s rough welcome does not seem to be a threat to that hope. She surprisingly allowed her Republican Inquisitor, even a black voter who watched the hearing carefully.
“I don’t think she was treated fairly,” said Gary’s financial adviser Greg Fleming, 72. “But that’s the situation in this country. Unfortunately, in today’s climate, that’s what to expect.”
Like District 1 of Indiana, District 2 of Georgia is still devoted to democracy, but if a candidate can participate in a local black vote, he has a great opportunity. If Jeremy Hunt, a veteran and black candidate in the Republican primary, challenges long-time Democrat Sanford Bishop, who is also a black man, the Supreme Court is part of his calculation. is not.
“We can talk about Republicans and Democrats, but in the end, voters don’t want to hear from us as leaders,” Hunt said. “There is a great temptation to get to the national level and understand what’s happening at different levels, but most of our campaigns are to keep it local.”
Still, when talking about the suffering of local farmers and truck drivers, Mr Hunt said he would always return to the economy, gas prices and inflation.
Black voters were most likely to be personally behind because of inflation, according to NBC News polls. And it creates anxiety that Republicans are eager to take advantage of.
Florida Rep. Byron Donald, one of the two Black Republicans in the House of Representatives, said: There is a rich white man. We have poor black people. We have poor white people. If you are poor in the United States, you are feeling the impact of $ 4.30 petrol. You are feeling the impact of household kerosene prices rising 60 percent. I feel the influence of meat, bread and milk, but they are all rising dramatically. “
Mr Donald said he had seen most of Judge Jackson’s hearings and had not seen anything that Republicans needed to apologize for.
“They never entered her personal life,” he said. “They never entered her personal career. They never criticized her for her personality.”
Democrats were disappointed and Republicans offered weak alternatives, so some black voters said they didn’t know where to go politically.
In Gary, Mr Fleming said he was worried about the growing power of the Democratic left. But until more Republicans dropped their “conspiracy theory” and extreme comments, he said, they weren’t many options.
“That is, did they think everything that happened on January 6th was AOK? It’s crazy,” Fleming said. “If Mitt Romney-type Republicans ran, I could go to it. But Republicans, they are now on another planet. I can’t even call them the far right. They’re gravity. I’m against. “
