Black voters a focal point in election, but many feel campaigns haven't done enough - TribLIVE

Jojo Burgess has spent the past month or so reaching out to Black voters across Southwestern Pennsylvania.

A common sentiment, according to Burgess, is: “Why vote? No one cares about us.”

While a record 137.5 million Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election, Black voter turnout decreased by about 765,000 and dropped for the first time in two decades, according to the Pew Research Center.

Democrats, in particular, are hoping there isn’t a repeat of that this year. About 83% of Black registered voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with 10% for Republicans, according to Pew.

Burgess, who is Black and serves as second vice chair of the Washington County Democratic Committee, said he has been encouraging people to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. Still, he thinks neither party has done a good enough job of trying to win the votes or trust of Black people.

This summer, after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other high-profile violent incidents between police and Black people, hundreds of thousands of Americans — many of them white — took to the streets in protest.

Burgess, 50, said he sensed a momentum shift nationally that he thought could result in meaningful changes, including policies addressing racial injustice and police brutality.

But a police reform bill called the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that passed the Democratic-controlled U.S. House in June stalled in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, and President Trump said he would veto the bill if it came to his desk.

Support for the protests also waned. In June, 54% of Americans said they supported the protests, but that dropped to 39% by September, according to Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling. Support among whites dropped from 53% to 34% in that span, while it went from 81% to 63% among Blacks, the Pew research showed.

University of Michigan political scientist Christian Davenport said the nation has historically seen public support wane among white Americans for social justice movements — what he calls “compassion fatigue.”

“When this was all about the (George Floyd) video and the visceral response to seeing someone’s life get squeezed out of them, that’s fine,” Davenport said. “But from the moment that topic is raised to awareness, the clock starts ticking with regards to, ‘How quickly can we resolve this so I can get back to my normal life?’”

For Tanisha Long, who has been working to start a Black Lives Matter chapter in the Pittsburgh region, Biden is her preferred candidate but she doesn’t think he’s an ideal one when it comes to addressing systemic racism. Long argued Biden and his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, who is Indian American and Black, have a mixed record when it comes to criminal justice issues.

“It’s weird: Going into this election we had all these candidates but it was whittled down to white, old men. That’s a turnoff to minority voters,” said Long, 30, of Crafton.

Still, she said she thinks Black voters should vote for Biden “because our lives depend on it.”

Long said she feels the Democratic Party is more sympathetic on race issues that matter to her, but the candidates have not been in Black communities enough.

“I would love to see them in the communities more often instead of just talking about them,” she said.

Ike Hajinazarian, Biden’s press secretary for Western Pennsylvania, said Biden’s campaign spent $280 million on a digital and television ad campaign targeting Black voters through the fall.

“Vice President Biden is acutely aware of the racial injustice that persists in our country, and one of his top priorities as president will be to work to root out systemic racism,” Hajinazarian said in an email.

He referenced Biden’s “Build Back Better” and “Lift Every Voice” plans that aim to improve economic opportunities for all Americans. Hajinazarian said Biden views all issue through the lens of injustice.

“Inequality — be it racial or socioeconomic — is inextricably intertwined with each and every issue we face as Americans,” he said.

Paris Dennard, the GOP’s Senior Communications Advisor for Black Media Affairs, said this election campaign has been different when it comes to reaching urban voters. He referenced the Trump campaign’s launch of Black Voices for Trump Community Centers in 15 cities, including in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Dennard said the centers have hosted over 150 engagement events, knocked on over 55,000 doors and made 85,000 phone calls to people within the predominantly Black communities. He said the campaign has also bought advertisements in historically Black newspapers and other media outlets to reach their readers and viewers.

“There’s no doubt our engagement effort in Pennsylvania has been significant, and we think that it’s going to make a difference,” he said.

Dennard, who is Black, said the GOP has tried to drive home to Black voters what Republicans have done to support school choice and Black entrepreneurs and Trump’s efforts to bring criminal justice reform.

“He’s been a true champion in every aspect of Black voters’ lives,” he said about Trump.

Lenny McAllister, a Black Republican from Penn Hills who has run for Congress in Illinois and Pennsylvania, said, “I think (Republican campaigns) are trying to make an economic and education argument to win over the voters.”

He said Republicans are focused on reminding voters of the economy’s well-being before the pandemic. He said they also are reminding voters that Trump signed the First Step Act, which reformed federal prisons and sentencing laws to reduce recidivism, decrease prison populations and bolster public safety.

McAllister said that bill and the party’s stance on school choice put Republicans “on the right side of history.”

“Those two issues have an impact to equal opportunity in America, to chase the American dream,” he said.

But the Republican establishment could do much better when it comes to messaging and reaching urban voters, who tend to vote Democratic, he said.

“That is less because of the effectiveness of Democrats and more so to the legacy problems that Republicans and conservatives have had in reaching urban voters and minority voters,” McAllister said, adding Republican politicians must do better at explaining, crafting and implementing free-market solutions that benefit all Americans.

“For the most part, they’ve failed at doing that for roughly 50 years. That must change for America to become stronger and more equal for all,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed.

Dillon Carr is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Dillon at 412-871-2325, dcarr@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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