Faceoff
(Photo : Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY,BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Black voter support for Trump is up in swing states Pennsylvania and Michigan, but not enough to put a dent in Biden's backing among the voters, according to a new poll.

While Black voters helped put Joe Biden in the White House the last time around, it doesn't look like they'll all do the same this year, according to a new USA Today Poll/Suffolk University poll.

But they dislike Donald Trump far more, the poll found.

There was more bad news for Trump in a Politico/Ipsos poll, which found that the negative impacts of the former president's conviction on 34 felonies in his hush-money criminal trial was beginning to emerge.

Possibly the most threatening for the Trump campaign was that 21% of the critical block of independent voters surveyed said the conviction made them less likely to support Trump and that it would be an important factor in their vote.

But many voters were skeptical that the trial and conviction were legitimate, the poll found, and public attitudes could possibly be further shaped throughout the campaign

The USA Today/Suffolk University survey of Black voters in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan found that while support for Biden has slipped a bit, he is still the first or second choice of the majority of them, while most would not vote for Trump. A strong alternative first choice hasn't emerged; possibilites include independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, who is Black.

The poll found Trump backed by about 15% of the Black vote in Michigan, and about 11% in Pennsylvania, compared to single digits in both states in the last election. But at this point it's not enough to put any significant dent in Biden's support by Black voters.

The issue of Black voter support has been in the headlines lately as Donald Trump — the man who wanted Army troops to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters "in the legs" when he was in the White House, according to his own Defense Secretary Mark Esper — is now claiming he has done more for Blacks than any other president since Abraham Lincoln.

His suporters have posted photos, some of them AI generated, of Black fans. And Trump visited a Black church in Detroit on Saturday. Critics, however, noted the vast majority of those attending the service were suddenly white.

The USA Today/Suffolk University surveys of 500 Black voters in each state were conducted by landline and cell phone from June 9 to 13. They have margins of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage point. 

The Politico/Ipsos poll interviewed 1,027 adults online from June 7-9. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. 

© 2024 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.