Black vote may decide which way state goes
With Ohio trending toward a tossup in the final days of the presidential race, energized Black voters could tip the election in a traditional swing state that went red in 2016.
Grass roots organizations and political campaigns say they have been courting Black voters, with some trying to harness the emotions that drove thousands to protest the police killings of George Floyd and others into action at the ballot box.
Four years ago, many Black Ohioans, especially younger residents, were underwhelmed by Hillary Clinton, and they simply didn’t go to the polls. If that happens again in 2020, Donald Trump could well win Ohio a second time.
While some political observers report growing enthusiasm among those who want to oust Trump, his campaign in Ohio is using its familiar playbook – a strong economy before the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as conservative values – to try to win over Black voters.
“When Joe Biden went on a national radio station and said to the entire world if you vote Republican you ain’t black, that insulted every American in this country,” Los Angeles talk radio host and civil rights attorney Leo Terrell said during a Black Voices for Trump event Wednesday at the president’s Ohio reelection headquarters in Westerville.
“He insulted the intelligence of every American and makes a false assumption that you have to be a Democrat if you’re African American.”
In 2016, Black voters made up 14% of Ohio voters in the presidential election, according to exit polls, and 88% supported Clinton. Four years earlier, they accounted for 15% of the state’s electorate with 96% backing Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president.
Trump won the state by more than 8 points, though, after Obama carried it with just over 50% of the vote in 2012.
“I think the Democratic Party learned a lesson from 2016 of their shortcomings and can’t take anything for granted, which obviously they did in 2016,” said Ronnie Dunn, interim chief diversity officer and an urban affairs professor at Cleveland State University.
But Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, an Akron Democrat, was critical of her party’s focus on white men, who have been leaving the party for years, in statewide elections instead of what she said has been the loyal support among Black women.
“I think it is the reason why we Democrats lose every single election,” she said. “It is a terrible strategy.”
Sykes said Democrats have left untapped a growing cohort of Black women who have moved to suburbs, many of whom she said did not re-register to vote. And waiting until the final weeks before the election to reach out to Black voters isn’t enough, she said.
“It has to be a sustained relationship, just the way you cultivate and court any other relationship. You can’t just show up to someone and say, ‘Marry me today,’” she said.
The Ohio Organizing Collaborative is trying to reach Black voters through volunteers who already have cultivated personal relationships, said Prentiss Haney, the organization’s co-executive director. The collaborative has about 1,300 volunteers with a goal of reaching 20,000 people before Election Day.
“You can have conversations with them that no politician, no campaign can have. You can have a kitchen table conversation with them,” he said.
The Ohio Unity Coalition is pushing for Black voters to look at the issues that are important to them and vote on those in down-ballot races as well, said Pierette (Petee) Talley, convener of the Ohio Coalition on Black Civic Participation for the Ohio Unity Coalition.
For example, voters who want reforms to the criminal justice system shouldn’t just vote in the presidential election, but in judicial races and elections for prosecutors, she said.
“What the mobilization this year is about is taking your protest from the streets and turning it into the ballot box, where you can actually get real answers and real change,” she said.
The four years of Trump’s presidency have felt like “a time warp” to Alana Parks, who waited outside the Franklin County Board of Elections in the rain Monday with her husband, Realous Parks, to vote early for Biden.
Problems between the police and Black citizens have existed for years, she said, but division within the country and social unrest have only gotten worse. She noted progress among people she knows, though.
“One on one you’re like we’ve come so far, but it seems like once he got elected the cloaks came off,” said Parks, 31, of Columbus.
The Rev. John Coats, a Columbus pastor and Trump supporter, dismissed the “narrative” that the president is racist and said the notion that racial injustice is the most important issue to Black voters is “absolutely ridiculous.”
Violent protests that erupted after the Minneapolis police killing of Floyd served as a distraction from health dis
parities, the sustainability of jobs, neighborhood safety and access to capital to help start businesses, he said.
Former Ohio Secretary of State and Treasurer J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican and Trump ally, said he expects Trump to receive between 12% and 15% of the ballots from Black voters. That would far surpass the 8% exit polls show he got in 2016.
“(Democrats) have a turnout problem. They have an enthusiasm problem because they have a candidate problem,” Blackwell said, adding that he doesn’t believe having a Black woman in Sen. Kamala Harris of California on the ticket will help Biden.
“Joe Biden is the lead dog. This is mano-y-mano. This is Joe Biden versus Donald Trump. This is record versus record,” he said.
Black voters are more enthusiastic for this election, and Democrats already are turning out in greater numbers, said U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, a Cleveland Democrat who represents parts of Cuyahoga and Summit counties.
Biden will need strong turnout in Democratic-rich northeast Ohio to overcome Trump’s advantage in more rural parts of Ohio. In blue Franklin County, Democrats have outnumbered Republicans three to one during early voting.
Black voters are as motivated in 2020 as they were to vote for Obama in 2008
and 2012 “because of the way Black folks have been treated over the last four years,” said former Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman.
“From dog whistles to in-your-face racism on almost a daily basis, it’s unprecedented,” said Coleman, the city’s first Black and longest-serving mayor.
Cleveland City Councilman Blaine A. Griffin said Black voters are more motivated this year, but it’s not because of Biden.
“It is a different kind of enthusiasm than the enthusiasm we saw when President Obama ran in 2008 and 2012. The enthusiasm that we see now is an anti-trump enthusiasm that this guy has to go. This guy is dangerous for our country,” Griffin said.
Coleman said Biden’s campaign has done a better job of putting resources into Ohio that target Black voters than Clinton did in 2016, and he praised the selection of Harris – Coleman’s first choice in the Democratic primary – as Biden’s running mate.
“So many times we have the resumes, so many times we have the business plan, but we don’t get the opportunity. I think Joe Biden set the tone by selecting Kamala, who is qualified,” said Alicia Reece, a former state representative and candidate for Hamilton County commissioner.
Dunn said he knew of several Black men who didn’t vote for Clinton in 2016 because they didn’t want a woman to be president. Fudge agreed that being a woman at the top of the ticket put Clinton at a disadvantage among some voters.
“I also think that it is a very different time because now we have had four years of someone who they thought was going to be this person who was going to do such great things and make such wonderful change,” Fudge said.
“He asked the question: What do you have to lose? And we see what we have to lose.”
During the Black Voices for Trump rally Wednesday, Terrell, Ohio Black Republicans Association Vice President Jeff Green and Ohio Rep. Bernadine Kennedy Kent, a Columbus Democrat who was expelled from her caucus and recently endorsed Trump, told the crowd of about 60 that the president had delivered on his promises.
Green railed against government welfare programs during the panel. Trump instead has focused on wealthbuilding programs for Black communities, such as Opportunity Zones that give tax advantages to development in low-income areas, Green said.
“When you have money, racism kind of goes away,” said Green, a Youngstown pastor.
Policies, not skin color, dictate Ben James’ vote, the 40-year-old business owner said before the event. Trump’s appointment of anti-abortion-rights judges and support for school choice both factor into his support for the president, he said.
“It has nothing to do with color,” James said. “If that was the case I would have voted for Barack. That has nothing to do with it. I look at the actual issues and the actual policies and make sure they’re lining up with what I believe and what the Bible says.”
Dispatch Public Affairs Editor Darrel Rowland contributed to this story. rrouan@dispatch.com @Rickrouan ccandisky@dispatch.com @Cathycandisky