House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said he was not worried about polls showing President Biden doing worse among Black voters than in 2020.
A CBS News poll this week showed Biden ahead of Trump among Black voters 76-23, while he had the support of about 90 percent of the group four years ago.
“The polling has been varied,” Jeffries said in a CBS “Face the Nation” interview with Margaret Brennan on Sunday. “But I’m sure that in November, the vast majority of African Americans, Caribbean Americans, and Black voters across the country will back President Biden and recognize that he has consistently delivered on issues that matter.”
“Whether it's the lowest rate of Black unemployment in decades, the historic investment in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, his strong support for small business creation and entrepreneurship in the Black community, and building on the efforts previously made by President Barack Obama,” he continued.
Jeffries rejected what Brennan called a “lack of enthusiasm” for Biden among Black voters, saying that contradicts what he has observed in his Brooklyn, New York district.
“I’ve traveled across the country and spent time in the district I represent here in Brooklyn, and there is a great deal of enthusiasm for President Joe Biden, and it is increasing,” he said.
The leader said Biden's powerful State of the Union address and focus on important issues, especially reproductive rights, has engaged voters.
“He was strong, serious, and substantive, and he drew a clear distinction between his vision of moving America forward in an inclusive way and the contrast with the extreme MAGA Republicans who want to turn back time,” Jeffries added.
The Biden campaign has faced pressure over Black voters for months, with campaign principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks attributing the issue in January to people “expressing urgency.”
“They sense a sense of urgency because of the threat that Republicans pose to, you know, America right now, and that’s precisely why the president and the vice president are running for reelection to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” Fulks said in January. “When it comes to African American voters, I want to be very clear about this, that no administration has done as much for the African American community as President Biden and Vice President Harris.”
One in five Black voters said they would vote for “someone else” rather than Biden or Trump in the 2024 presidential election, according to a GenForward survey released in December.
