Voters say protests were important; they disagree why

The protests that broke out after the police killing of George Floyd in May were some of the biggest racial justice marches organized in decades. In the early weeks, polling showed broad and deep support for them across the country.

But as the summer wore on and with it, sporadic looting and acts of vandalism, Americans became much more divided in how they saw the protests.

Just how divided became clear on Election Day.

Alfonse Bowman of Philadelphia said that as he cast his ballot for Joe Biden, he was thinking of how just a week before, the police in his hometown had fatally shot a young Black man. Bowman, who is Black, said he thought to himself of President Donald Trump: “We have to get this man out of office.”

Anne Marie Kelly, a white medical worker who lives a couple of hours away in Stroudsburg, Pa., said she was horrified by the vandalism and looting that followed protests in some cities. It made her feel that “this is not the America I want to live in anymore,” and reinforced her resolve to vote for Trump.

About 9 of every 10 voters said the protests over police violence were a factor in their voting, with more than three- fourths calling it a major factor, according to preliminary data from AP VoteCast, a large voter survey conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. About a fifth of all voters said the protests were the single most important factor in their decision at the ballot box, according to the survey, which interviewed over 140,000 respondents by phone and online.

But these voters were split deeply on who should be in the White House. Among those who cited the protests as a factor, 53% voted for Biden, and 46% for Trump, according to the survey.

Interviews with a number of voters showed there were strong differences that often ran along racial lines — with many Black voters viewing the protests through the lens of police violence threatening their lives, while many conservative white voters saw unrest encroaching on their communities.

“All this rioting, it’s childish,” said Crystal Daddario, 32, who was standing in line to vote for Trump in Reeders, Pa., on Tuesday. Daddario, who is white, is the wife of an Iraq War veteran, and said they were living in Louisville, Ky., where the police killed Breonna Taylor during a botched raid, but “left because it was getting too close to home.”

The protests, which drew many white Americans as well, were especially potent as an issue in places like Louisville and Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed. Unrest also roiled Philadelphia, where dozens were arrested and many police officers hurt in late October after the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., a Black man with a history of mental illness.

Bowman, 19, a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta who is taking classes online from home there, said he watched a protest from his car. He said he yelled at the police, and claimed that an officer came over and struck him in the face with a baton, fracturing bones in his face.

His vote for Biden was the first of his life.

During the campaign Biden distanced himself from the progressive wing of his party and said he opposed cutting resources for law enforcement. Regardless, Trump, running on a “law and order” message, often made false claims about Biden’s record on criminal justice policy.

It is too early to tell precisely how much of the greatly increased turnout went to Biden and whether the protests were a driving force.

But there are clues that they might have helped. In Wayne County, Mich., which includes Detroit, there were more votes cast this year than during Barack Obama’s reelection bid in 2012.

In Jefferson County, which includes Louisville, turnout did not reach 2012 levels, but rose by more than 10% compared with 2016.

Black voters said they did not think Biden would be a fix for all of the problems of policing in their communities. But at least he acknowledged systemic racism, they said, something Trump has refused to do.