VALDOSTA, Georgia (Askume) – Vivian Childs, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, taught a large group of Republicans how to win over black voters in the battleground state of Georgia.
Last month, the Black Baptist minister spoke to a crowd of volunteers and campaign staffers at the former president’s newly opened office in the rural town of Valdosta, saying the focus should be on Trump’s economic policies, illegal immigration and inflation .
He asked voters to look at what Trump has done for them and how he will bring the change America needs. “We are the party of hope,” he said. “We are the party of truth.”
An imposing building with white columns and balconies, the office has an air of hustle and bustle. Trump himself has acknowledged that Georgia has become a must-win state, which he held until Kamala Harris became his Democratic opponent in July .
His late arrival has added excitement as Georgia polls show a tight contest between the candidates, a marked shift from early July polls that showed Trump leading Democratic President Joe Biden by 6 percentage points.
In particular, the battle is fierce for Black voters , who make up a third of the state’s population and have the largest proportion of Black voters among the seven battleground states that will decide the Nov. 5 presidential election .
However, Trump’s efforts to win black support are complicated by his traditional allegiance to Democrats, his past racist rhetoric and a history of Republican-backed voting restrictions that activists say have made it harder for black residents to vote by intimidating them. Republicans deny they were trying to suppress the vote.
Childs, one of the supporters of the national Black Americans for Trump coalition, acknowledged that Harris’ nomination initially changed the race in Georgia . “There’s definitely a lot of excitement,” he said. “She’s black and she’s a woman.”
He stressed that the enthusiasm is waning.
“We have to stop dividing our country based on what we look like,” he said. “I ask people to talk to people of color the same way they talk to white people: Look at President Trump’s resume, his policies, and what he’s done for all Americans.”
Askume spoke to more than three dozen campaign officials, party chairs, local activist groups and allies representing Trump and Harris to get a sense of each candidate’s performance in the state, where Trump faced Biden in the 2020 election, losing by a margin of 12,000.
A senior Trump campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters, said the team believes it has a particular potential to attract young black people who are dissatisfied with the high prices of the Democratic Party and have seen greater economic opportunity under the former president.
Pigs, peaches and politics
At churches and county fairs, on the doorstep, on social media and on the radio, both campaigns are trying to appeal to people of color, a group of voters who traditionally lean heavily Democratic but who, according to polls, are seeing Trump’s approval ratings rise.
“The situation in Georgia is really serious,” said Essence Johnson, the Democratic Party chairwoman in Cobb County, an Atlanta suburb.
Indeed, the battle lines were drawn at the Pig & Peach BBQ Festival in Cobb County.
The Democratic booth appealed to voters of color with literature on student loan forgiveness, aid to historically black colleges, and lower drug prices. A hundred yards away, a Republican booth was filled with Spanish-language pamphlets and literature focused on inflation, abortion, economic opportunity, and faith.
“Many African Americans, Asians and Hispanics share these values,” said Saligh Grubbs, the Republican county chairman. He held events at schools in the more racially diverse southern part of the county, hosted family gatherings and went door-to-door in predominantly black neighborhoods.
Cobb County reflects demographic changes that have turned Georgia from a reliably Republican state into a battleground state. The once predominantly white Republican county is now 30% Black, 14% Hispanic and 6% Asian, a sector that helped Biden win Georgia in 2020.
Johnson, the Cobb County Democratic Party chairman, said things have changed dramatically since Harris entered the race. “It’s a reflection in the mirror for many of us,” he said of Harris.
He said a Black forum held before Biden ended his re-election campaign on July 21 was attended by 14 people, but another forum held shortly after Harris entered the race was attended by 125. More than 60 people attended the county party meeting when Biden was the candidate; 235 have attended since Harris became the candidate.
Before Biden dropped out, Trump’s campaign was so confident of winning Georgia that it spent less than $3 million on ad buys. Since Harris’s emergence, the campaign and an affiliated group have responded by spending more than $30 million on advertising in the state, more than the Harris campaign spent in August.
The two parties have pledged to spend more than $37 million in Georgia before Election Day, according to AdImpact, a company that tracks political ads.
The Georgia Black Republican Council, which has endorsed Trump, is running ads on black radio stations in eight metro areas that focus on immigration, said Georgia Black Republican Council Chairwoman Camila Jay, economics and pro-life issues. Moore said.
Trump’s campaign ads have been mostly negative, attacking Harris for inflation, accusing her of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and accusing her of being a dangerous liberal.
Janiya Thomas, director of black media for the Trump campaign, said the former president has a strong record of creating opportunities for the black community.
“Our message to every Black American struggling to make ends meet is clear: Vote for the candidate who consistently delivers on his promises,” he said.
In August and September 2019, during Trump’s tenure as president, the black unemployment rate reached a new low of 5.3%. Under Biden, the rate will fall further to 4.8% in 2023.
Harris is running ads highlighting her proposals to lower drug prices, impose a housing tax on large corporations and the super-rich, and create tax breaks for working parents.
Harris’ campaign said it has been reaching out to Black voters across Georgia “since day one.”
“Vice President Harris is working to lower costs for our families, protect our freedoms, and make sure everyone in Georgia can not only survive, but thrive,” said Porsha White, the campaign’s state director.
“God help our souls”
According to exit polls, Trump won about 11% of Georgia’s black vote in the 2020 election. Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University, said he could win the state if he gets more votes in November.
A CNN poll conducted in the last week of August showed Harris leading in the state by one point (48%-47%), while Trump received 10% of the black vote.
Trump’s win in Georgia would ease the pressure on him to win the three Midwestern battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But Harris is a black and South Asian woman and her inflammatory rhetoric could alienate some voters. Trump questioned the vice president’s racial identity.
“God bless our souls if Trump wins the election,” said Demetrius Hall Sr., a 62-year-old Black voter from Savannah. He condemned Trump’s racist remarks and said he would vote for Harris.
Trump ally Childs dismissed the comments in an interview after the Valdosta volunteer meeting, citing Trump’s economic policies that reduced unemployment, the closure of historically black colleges and universities, and his policy on illegal immigration as factors that won him support.
Asked how she would respond to voters who accuse Trump of being a racist, Childs said: “I say, ‘On what basis?'”
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp defeated Black Democrat Stacey Abrams, showing that Republicans can increase their share of the Black vote in 2022 as support among Black voters was higher than in 2018. The first campaign saw a 7 percentage point increase. Kemp’s former campaign manager Bobby Sapero said Kemp’s focus was on the economy and gun rights.
Bruce Leavell, a black businessman in Atlanta, said Trump’s message about wallet issues resonated among black voters.
“Black men in particular and some women are really concerned about their wallets,” Leavell said. During a visit to Atlanta in early August, Leavell hosted a roundtable of black business owners with Trump.
Meanwhile, at Embassy Church in Austell in southern Cobb County, senior pastor B. Dwayne Hardin was spreading a conservative message.
At a recent service that began with an hour of fiery gospel songs, Harding told his black congregation that America was headed toward socialism, that children were being taught the wrong things in school and that the country was “full of terrorists.”
He said it’s important to vote for people who “change things.”
Later, Harding said in his private office that he was not asking people to vote for Trump, but that Trump was on the right side on issues such as individual liberty, school choice, and economic empowerment.
He told his followers, “Don’t worship idols that have the same skin color as you.”
