Democrats Have Taken Black Women’s Vote For Granted. Will It Come Back To Bite Them?

In 2020, Joe Biden’s presidential bid was resurrected from life support by black women in South Carolina. The numbers bear us out; if the next Republican presidential candidate could garner 15% of the black female vote, it is game over for Democrats.

The Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR) and Essence magazine recently released a poll to gauge the pulse of black women in America. Brilliant Corners Strategies, a Left-leaning market research company, conducted the survey. However, even a poll commissioned and conducted by the Left for the Left could not hide the great displeasure that black women have with the Democratic party.

• Only 9% of black women believe they are getting ahead.
• 61% of black women Gen Xers and 68% of the black women from the Silent Generation say the economy is getting worse.
• Only 65% of the black women would vote for the Democrats in the midterms. At least 92% of black women voted for the Democratic candidate in 2018.

Democrats know they cannot win the midterms in 2022 or the White House in 2024 with this low support from black women. Therefore, they do as they have done for half a century, which is of course to accuse Republicans of being racists. Democrats executed this strategy in February when President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris went down to our home state Georgia to again claim that Republicans were suppressing the black vote. 

Even Democratic darling Stacey Abrams refused to attend, unwilling to be a prop in the president’s false promises media event. The reality is that the voting rights law passed in Georgia did not suppress the vote. Shortly after the law passed, Atlanta’s municipal elections saw an increase in voter turnout by 17% over 2017. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “most voters reported they didn’t face any obstacles at the polls.”

Democrats are once again turning to their playbook with the leaked Roe v. Wade Supreme Court opinion.

For decades the Left has claimed that the end of abortion is the end of health care for black women. We pray that black women see the genocidal racism in claiming that abortion is health care.

Black lives have been devastated by these claims championed by organizations like Planned Parenthood that make a profit off of the death of black children. Black women only represent 13% of the female population, but account for almost a third of abortions in America.

Republicans have some work to do in winning over black women. In the same BWR/Essence poll only 8% of black women said they would vote for the Republican candidate in the 2022 midterms.

For half a century, Democrats have not deviated from their talking points, “Republicans are racists.” The hard work ahead for Republicans is underscored by the recent intolerant outburst by co-host Sunny Hostin on “The View.”

In an exchange with guest host Lindsey Gardner, Hostin said, “I feel like that’s an oxymoron, a black republican.” Hostin demonstrated the same intolerance that President Biden exhibited when he said to black voters, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”

In truth, Republicans have led the way to advance opportunities for black Americans through everything from school choice and permanent HBCU funding to opportunity zones and increased sickle cell funding. Democrats have spent the last half-century wooing black voters with promises of equitable outcomes and free stuff without building avenues for long-term growth from equal opportunities.

At least 20% of black men who hold advanced degrees ignored the race card bullying from the Left by voting for Republicans in 2020. In 2022, we hope the black women will do the same.

Dee Dee Bass Wilbon and Deana Bass Williams are partners at Bass Public Affairs based in Washington, DC. They co-host a weekly podcast, Policy and Pound Cake.