Biden Loses Support Among Black Men, WSJ Poll Finds

President Biden faces a dual-natured challenge to shore up his support with Black Americans, one of the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituencies.

Perhaps the most urgent: More Black men said they plan to back Donald Trump this fall, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll of seven swing states.

While most Black men said they intend to support Biden, some 30% of them in the poll said they were either definitely or probably going to vote for the former Republican president. There isn’t comparable WSJ swing-state polling from 2020, but Trump received votes from 12% of Black men nationwide that year, as recorded by AP VoteCast, a large poll of the electorate.

In the WSJ poll, 11% of Black women said they were either definitely or probably going to vote for Trump. In 2020, the AP poll found, 6% of Black women nationwide backed Trump.

“I think winning back more Black men is going to be key for him,” Michael Bocian, a Democratic pollster who conducted the WSJ survey, said of Biden. Bocian completed the poll along with the company of Tony Fabrizio, a Republican. Fabrizio, who worked for a pro-Trump super political-action committee when the survey was conducted, has since joined the Trump campaign.

On the other hand, while Black women are less likely than Black men to support Trump, some are exploring other options, including third parties and potentially staying home.

In a sign that Biden hasn’t yet won commitments from many of these voters, some 42% of Black women in the survey fell into a group that the Journal pollsters say are up for grabs in the election, or still persuadable in their vote choice. These voters say they have not yet decided on a candidate, may vote for an independent or third-party option or are likely—but not certain—to back one of the major-party candidates.

While Latino women and Black men in the survey also signaled in large numbers that they remain persuadable in their vote choice, the share of Black women is noteworthy, given that they are among the most loyal Democratic groups in the electorate.

Biden’s standing has taken a hit with some Black voters as they—like many others—express discontent with his performance on broad issues such as the economy and immigration. While the Black gender split on Biden mirrors one that exists with the electorate overall, losing Black support in particular would be a blow to Biden’s re-election prospects, given how vital Black Americans are to the Democratic coalition.

“In this particular election, the persuasion isn’t just to vote or not to vote,” said Adrianne Shropshire, head of BlackPAC, a Democratic super PAC. “The persuasion is actually to get people to come to Biden and away from third parties and away from Trump.”

Bocian said it isn’t unheard of to see Black voters poll soft on Democrats before coming around to the party’s candidates closer to Election Day.

“That said, Biden is further off than where we have seen Democrats in the past,” Bocian said.

An aide for the Biden campaign said its $25 million advertising campaign, announced in August to reach key voters in battleground states, included the largest and earliest investment in Black media for a re-election campaign in history.

A representative for the Trump campaign said: “Our coalition message to Black and Hispanic communities this election is simple: If you want strong borders, safe neighborhoods, rising wages, quality jobs, school choice and the return of the strongest economy in over 60 years, then vote for Donald J. Trump.”

Percy Jones, a Black restaurant manager who lives in Atlanta’s West End, said Biden just hasn’t been an impressive president. He is remembering Trump’s time in office more fondly—most notably on immigration.

“He didn’t allow people who don’t live here to come in,” Jones said. “They are taking all of our jobs.”

Jones didn’t vote in 2020 but said he probably would this year and likely would vote for Trump. “I think Trump did a better job,” he said.

As president, Biden “wasn’t really helping the community,” Jones said. The stimulus checks helped people during the Covid-19 lockdowns, but now those are gone, he said. “He has a lot of people fooled,” Jones said of Biden.

In Milwaukee, Paul Whigham, 51 years old, a chef who owns Mi Casa Su Cafe, said he understands the appeal of Trump. Whigham hasn’t had a chance to really focus on the election. Most of his time is spent trying to keep his restaurant open when it is difficult to find staff, he said.

He said he probably will end up supporting Biden, but he sees why some Black men like Trump.

“He doesn’t speak like the average politician with a bunch of jargon,” he said. “His rhetoric is scathing at times, a lot of people say it’s hurtful, demeaning to other ethnicities and races and stuff like that. But I think he speaks plain English.”

Still, most Black men—57%—say they back Biden over Trump.

Tony Clay, 40, a barber in Atlanta’s predominantly Black West End neighborhood, said he feels that Trump is trying to undermine democracy. He said he felt Trump was too cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“People talk about the economy, but I feel our freedom is at stake,” Clay said.

Brittney Brown, 37, who works at Noir’e Hair District, a salon in Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood, which has many Black businesses, said she voted for Biden in 2020, but regrets it.

“I haven’t seen any of his policies or the things that he said he was going to do for the American people coming to fruition,” she said.

She would like to see more spending on inner cities and programs that help the Black, brown and indigenous communities, but feels they have all been let down by Democrats.

Though the inflation rate has come down, she said she was still struggling to get by on Wisconsin’s minimum wage, which is also the national minimum. “A gallon of milk is $5 in some places, yet I make $7.25?” she said. “Make it make sense.”

But that hasn’t made her a fan of Trump. “He would be horrible for us, in my opinion,” she said of the former president.

Her plan on Election Day is to write in Jasmine Sherman, who is running for president with a socialist-led party. “People are tired of being lied to and hearing empty promises,” she said.

Tyra Griffin, 39, who lives in Atlanta and works for a medical office, voted for Biden in 2020. She falls in the category of Black women who are down on Biden but say they probably will vote for him again.

Biden’s handling of Israel’s war against Hamas has been good so far, she said, because he has kept American soldiers out of the crisis, but she worried about how much the U.S. is spending there.

“Biden is spending a lot of money for overseas things, billions of dollars on other places, and we are struggling here,” she said.

Aaron Zitner in Washington contributed to this article.

Write to Cameron McWhirter at [email protected], Joe Barrett at [email protected], and Joshua Jamerson at [email protected]