Those who engage with voters of color looking for messages that will resonate in 2024
WASHINGTON — This year's elections in Louisiana did not go as voting rights advocate Ashley Shelton had hoped. The far-right conservative attorney general replaced a term-limited Democratic governor and consolidated Republican control in the state.
Turnout was only 37%, despite the efforts of activists like her.
“Even if you work hard and do everything you need to do, you're going to have an unfortunate outcome, which is this statewide election,” said Shelton, executive director of Power Coalition for Equity. & Justice in Louisiana.
She said it will be a challenge to regain the trust of the communities of color she typically focuses on, especially because of a steady drumbeat of disappointment in recent years, from attacks on voting rights to the failure of a sweeping plan for the student loan forgiveness. While Louisiana is not a battleground for national races, Shelton's experience in the state serves as a window into some of the challenges President Joe Biden faces as his reelection campaign plans strategies to engage the diverse communities that helped him win in 2020.
Shelton and other activists say they are already looking for messages that will appeal to voters, despite their own fatigue. That follows recent polls showing that adults in the United States are generally unenthusiastic about a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump as the winner.
“I don't have the luxury of being tired, frustrated or annoyed,” she said. “I just need to get back into the community with people and understand how to reconnect them with the power of their voice.”
Voting groups that were essential to Biden's victory enter the new year expecting it will be difficult to rebuild the same level of support, especially among voters of color and younger voters.
Only 33% of nonwhite adults under 45 approve of Biden's job performance, according to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs research poll. Just as troubling for the Biden camp is the precipitous decline he has seen among Black and Hispanic adults since his first months in office, when his approval rating was 86% among Black adults, 63% among Hispanic adults and 49% among white adults. Now that approval rating stands at 50%, 36% and 40% respectively.
Democratic campaign strategists say they are encouraging stronger outreach to black voters in key states. Biden's campaign said it is already laying the groundwork for such an effort.
Voting activists said they know voters of color are essential for Biden and cited numerous reasons for the declining support. These include the failure to pass a law that would have strengthened voting rights, after numerous Republican-controlled states passed restrictions in recent years, and Biden's promise on student loan forgiveness, which was subsequently rejected by the Supreme Court was overturned.
“The candidates predicted to be at the top of the ballot in 2024 are a problem,” said Lily Trieu, executive director of Asian Texans for Justice. “Many young people in particular feel very disillusioned with Biden.”
The Rev. Frederick Haynes, chairman of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Chicago-based civil rights group founded more than 50 years ago by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said the Democratic Party must tell voters what it has accomplished and what it plans to do. doing. do after next year's elections.
“Rainbow PUSH will challenge the government: what are you doing to get the message through the right media to the communities you say you serve?” Haynes said.
The Biden campaign agrees, saying it is emphasizing gains including providing broadband internet access, especially in communities of color, reducing unemployment rates and diversifying the federal judiciary, said Quentin Fulks, the chief deputy campaign manager.
Fulks added that the campaign has also begun organizing programs in two crucial states, Arizona and Wisconsin, to communicate with Latino, Black and young voters.
“There's a lot at stake here, and it's our job as a campaign to communicate that. But it also has to be mixed with, 'What have you done for me and what has the government done and what will this government continue to do to try to improve people's lives?'” Fulks said. we must take our foot off the gas pedal, nor do we take these voters for granted.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Georgia Black Republican Council is also planning a radio and billboard campaign highlighting issues it says are relevant to black voters in a state that is expected to be heavily contested. Topics include school choice, immigration and abortion. The organization plans to hold listening sessions at Black churches across the state.
Other voting rights advocates say their messages to communities of color will range from successes, such as persistently low unemployment, to explanations of why priorities such as federal voting and police law overhaul failed. Statewide issues will be a crucial part of their reporting, focusing on book bans, gerrymandered districts and abortion.
Elsie Cooke-Holmes, international president of Delta Sigma Theta, a historically black sorority, said her organization is developing a national strategy and will hold webinars with members on fashion strategies for local communities.
Even if voters aren't excited about the presidential race, they should be educated about how the issues will affect them “not just at the top of the ballot, but at the very top and bottom of the ballot,” Cooke-Holmes said. “So much of what has been decided, especially with these voter suppression laws, is certainly happening at the state level and local level. We want to make sure that that education is happening and that that message is being articulated.”
The groups also plan to highlight some of the direct attacks on their efforts and priorities. For example, since 2021, about 10 states have attempted to implement or increase criminal penalties and fines for individuals and groups who assist voters. Several of those laws faced legal challenges.
Recently, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court ruled that private individuals and groups do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the Voting Rights Act. It's another example of an attack on the tools left to protect voters, said Cesar Ruiz, an attorney with a focus on voting rights for LatinoJustice.
Yterenickia Bell, senior director of the And Still I Vote Program at the Leadership Conference Education Fund, will focus on women of color between the ages of 18 and 35 in 11 states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin .
“As we enter that door, we must remind them that the country is only as successful as the young people involved in it,” she said, noting that many of the civil rights activists on the front lines of the 1960s were the same age if she. the time.
Student debt, climate change, health care, abortion and reproductive care will be the selling points for this demographic, Bell said.
“Black voters are pragmatic voters” and the young are less party-oriented and more focused on issues, said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. “Ultimately, this cannot be an election just about the candidates. It can't just be Trump. It can't just be about Biden. It really has to be: 'How does democracy protect us?'”
Mishara Davis, director of issuance and election operations at State Voices, said the message cannot be universal.
“The same message we use with young black students in Georgia may look a little different than when we talk to white women in Wyoming,” Davis said. “Or we're talking to a church congregation in Arkansas compared to someone in Detroit.”
That method was proven in Ohio last fall when voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion, said Prentiss Haney, co-executive director of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. He said the group registered at least 20,000 people, 90% of whom were Black voters, and knocked on more than 200,000 doors, making their reach the largest Black voter engagement program in the state.
The key was not to treat the black community as if it were monolithic, he said. The group is aiming for a similar approach in 2024, when Ohio will have one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.
“What we have done is understand that there is diversity in values and ideology, especially among Black voters across the country, and especially in Ohio,” Haney said.
As long as the reporting is tailored to the needs of a diverse audience and prioritizes the issues they care about most — rather than focusing on personalities and candidates — it will be successful, said the Rev. William Barber, co-founder of the Poor People's Campaign.
The questions should be about who supports health care, higher wages, voting rights and bodily autonomy, he said.
The ground forces may be exhausted, Barber said, but “there are two kinds of fatigue: there's a fatigue when I'm going to quit, and there's a sick-and-tired but I'm not going to give up because I know I have the power to do this to change.”
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AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson contributed to this report.
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