Voter Vibe Check: Why Trump Has More Support from Black Voters Than Ever

Notes from America with Kai Wright

WNYC Studios

News Commentary, Politics, History, News

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A February 2024 New York Times/Siena College poll reveals as many as 23 percent of Black respondents said they would vote for Trump if the election were held right then. The numbers are strikingly higher than they have been in the past — and they are notable for a community that has voted overwhelmingly for democrats and against Donald Trump specifically. So what, if anything, do such polls tell us about how politics may be shifting among Black voters right now?

Host Kai Wright is joined this week by Noel King, co-host of the podcast Today, Explained to discuss what the rise of Black Trump supporters signals to them. They also sit down with Brandon Tensley, a national politics reporter at Capital B, who covers the impact of policy and political movements on Black people in America. In this episode, they dissect some of the polling, how reliable it is, and what the numbers mean about Black voters' feelings and opinions going into November. Plus, they take calls and hear why some of you are starting to feel “Trump curious.”

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm hearing that a lot of people that are black like I am are thinking about
0:07.2	voting for Trump this time around. You asked recently if people are
0:11.1	curious and I'm calling in to say much to my surprise and
0:17.3	much to my sadness I am.
0:19.4	I absolutely do believe that more blacks need to vote for Donald Trump and will vote for
0:27.8	Donald Trump. The question that I have is why do I hear so many people platforming that black people are for Trump?
0:35.4	I'm not voting for Trump, but I don't, any of the friends that I have in my circle or my workplace
0:41.2	are not voting for Trump.
0:42.3	I'm so sick of talking about how many black people vote with Trump.
0:46.1	I don't know any black people that vote on Trump.
0:48.2	So I really want to know, who are these people talking to? pocket too. It's Notes from America. I'm Kai Wright. Welcome to the show. We have spent a couple of shows this year,
1:18.0	opening our phones and hearing from all of you on questions surrounding this coming presidential election. We'll be doing this
1:24.6	throughout the year and I have been calling these shows voter vibe checks but let me
1:29.7	update that language because our goal is not to parse your votes for the sake of figuring out who's going to win or lose and why.
1:38.0	That's just not our work here.
1:40.0	Our goal is to facilitate a broader conversation about democracy.
1:44.4	What kind of country do we want to create together?
1:48.1	That's our question.
1:49.1	So as we have these vibe checks throughout the year, yes, we are going to pick up on trends
1:55.1	and polls and surveys about voting, but we want to use them as prompts for conversations
2:00.6	about what's happening in your lives and your communities because I think that's also what shapes your politics.
2:06.8	Okay, with that said, this week we are going to wade into some tricky territory with another vibe check.
	...

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