Trump, Harris battle for Black voters in must-win Georgia

Vivian Childs, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, schooled a roomful of Republicans on how to win over Black voters in the battleground state of Georgia.

Focus on Trump’s economic policies, on illegal immigration and inflation, the Black Baptist minister told the gathered group of volunteers and campaign staff at the former president’s newly opened office in the rural city of Valdosta last month.

It’s neck and neck

• Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris are effectively tied heading into the final weeks of the election, according to a national poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College
• Trump is up one percentage point, 48%-47%, over Harris, according to the survey, a difference that is well within the survey’s three-point margin of error, meaning a win for either candidate in the Nov 5 election is well within reach

Tell voters what Trump has done for them and that he will bring the change America needs, she exhorted. “We are the party of hope,” she said. “We are the party of truth.” There was a mood of urgency at the office, a grand building with white pillars and porches. By Trump’s own admission, Georgia has become a must-win state, one he thought he had locked up until Kamala Harris became his Democratic rival in July.

Her late entry ignited a burst of popular enthusiasm, and opinion polls in Georgia show the candidates neck and neck, a huge turnaround from early July when polls showed Trump leading Democratic President Joe Biden by as many as six percentage points.

In particular, an intense battle is being waged for the Black voters who make up a third of the state’s population, the biggest proportion of Black voters in any of the seven battleground states that will decide the November 5 presidential election.

Trump’s attempt to pull in more Black support, however, is complicated by their traditional loyalty to the Democratic Party, his past racist remarks and a history of Republican-backed voting restrictions that activists say make it harder for Black residents to vote. Republicans deny they are trying to suppress the vote.

Childs, part of the national “Black Americans for Trump” coalition of advocates, conceded the nomination of Harris initially changed the race in Georgia. “There was a lot of excitement, absolutely,” she said. “She’s Black and a woman.” She insisted that excitement was fading.

“We have got to stop dividing our country based on how we look,” she added. “I’m telling people to talk to Black people the same way they talk to white people: look at President Trump’s resume, his policies, what he’s done for all Americans.”

A senior Trump campaign official said the team saw particular promise in attracting young Black men who he said have become disaffected with Democrats over high prices and see greater economic opportunities under the former president.