Author: Peter Nicholas, Senior White House Reporter for NBC News Digital
If there is a prototypical Kamala Harris voter, it might seem to be Charles Johnson, a 23-year-old black college student.
Johnson is informed and politically engaged; went on Friday to hear former President Barack Obama speak at a Democratic campaign rally on the campus of the University of Arizona.
But he’s not terribly impressed with Obama, the country’s first black president, or Harris, who would be the second. He says he’s leaning towards voting for Donald Trump.
“The media says he (Trump) is terrible, racist and he’s going to bring us back, but he’s only gaining support among black voters,” Johnson said in an interview. “He’s just gaining support among black men.”
Democrats have been unnerved by recent polls that show Harris’s numbers are declining among black voters, especially among young black men. While campaigning for Harris, one of Obama’s tasks is to convince black men like Johnson that voting for Trump would be a grave mistake. Obama’s adviser said that in the remaining days before the election, he will interview podcast creators and various Internet personalities who have large black followings.
He remains a unique figure in national politics, enjoying great popularity to this day. Obama is the only president since Ronald Reagan to win the presidency twice with more than 50% of the vote.
A poll released this month by Emerson College found that a majority of voters in each of the seven key swing states that will decide the election have a favorable view of the 44th president.
His advisers talk to Harris regularly, and Obama serves as an “advisory board” on issues such as her selection of running mate. He added that he offered any help she might need in terms of campaign strategy, fundraising and staffing. After Harris replaced Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe became one of her senior advisers.
But the younger generation of black Americans may have seen little of Obama, having only vague memories of a presidency that ended nearly eight years ago.
In recent days, at two rallies in Tucson and Las Vegas, Obama drew thousands of cheering supporters, although the turnout among young black men appeared small.
Some in attendance said that when it comes to this distinct segment of the electorate, Obama may not be as persuasive a messenger as he once was.
Miles Covington, 35, a black student at the University of Arizona, said he had not yet decided how he would vote. He came to hear Obama speak, and while standing in line for the campus event, he said he didn’t see Obama as a figure who would have a particular influence on young black men.
“It resonates with a different culture,” Covington said. “They’re going to need a young guy to come in and stand up to the black guy. This is not that young boy.”
This is a shortened version of an article from NBC News. Read the whole thing here…
