As one of the most critical voting blocs in the 2024 election, Black male voters will play a pivotal role in determining who wins the White House.
It’s 9:00 p.m., and just a couple of blocks from the United States Capitol, a group of Black men are gathered to watch President Joe Biden’s last State of the Union before the 2024 election.
The group, brought together by the Black Male Voter Project, represents a cross-section of Black America and one of this election cycle’s most coveted voting blocs. Their reaction to Biden’s speech could make or break the Biden-Harris quest to win re-election.
Both major political parties write off Black men’s daily struggles and their pursuit of the American Dream. That’s why W. Mondale Robinson, founder of the project, believes that, before these voters show up in record numbers in 2024, they need trusted messengers engaging them year-round.
“Civic engagement doesn’t start and end with the vote,” Robinson said moments before President Biden entered the House Chamber on March 7.
Black male voters, who outperformed every other voting demographic in supporting a woman’s right to abortion access in Ohio’s 2023 election, count among the most progressive voting blocs in the country.
While they represented the sharp edge of the Biden coalition during the 2020 election, their turnout strength on the 2024 ballot remains unknown. Biden’s Thursday evening remarks, billed as his most important of the year, could make all the difference.
Just moments before the president entered the House Chamber, the volume in the initially noisy and cheerful room lowered as murmurs and puns about the president’s age sparked a couple of chuckles.
“Good ole’ Joe looks energized tonight,” states one of the voices in the crowded room of Black male voters.
While often defined in the mainstream media as binary voters—either choosing the Democratic Party or Republican Party–these voters remain persuadable. They have four choices in the upcoming election: re-elect President Biden, vote for former President Donald Trump, vote third party, or decide to sit this election out.
