Obama’s Callout to Black Men Touches a Nerve Among Democrats

Barack Obama had frank words for Black men who may be considering sitting out the election.

“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said Thursday to Harris-Walz campaign volunteers and officials at a field office in Pittsburgh.

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Harris is counting on Black turnout in battleground states such as Pennsylvania in her tight race with Republican Donald Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races and tried to make inroads with Black men in particular.

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A recent poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 7 in 10 Black voters had a favorable view of Harris and preferred her leadership to that of Trump on several major policy issues including the economy, health care, abortion, immigration and the war between Israel and Hamas.

There was little difference in support for Harris between Black men and Black women.

But Khalil Thompson, co-founder and executive director of Win With Black Men, said he agreed with what he saw as Obama’s larger point.

“I believe President Obama is speaking to a tangible, visceral understanding of what it means for all men to relate to women in America. Calling out misogyny is not wrong,” said Thompson, whose group raised more than $1.3 million for Harris from 20,000 Black men in the 24 hours after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race in July and made way for Harris.

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“We’re not a monolith,” Thompson said. “However, we are just like every other American in this country who wants a good paying job, that we can provide for our children and participate in their lives and the lives of our partner, that we can get them home safely, afford to go to the grocery store, save a little for retirement and have a vacation.”

Harris said she believes the votes of Black men must be earned, like with any group of voters.

Black men “are not in our back pocket,” she told a panel hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in September.

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The Harris campaign is conducting a number of outreach efforts to Black voters, including an tour of homecomings at historically Black colleges and universities, a number of radio and TV ads targeting Black voters in key states, and a get-out-the-vote operation engaging Black communities that complements the work of allied groups such as Win With Black Men.

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