'Not going to happen': Senator explains why Trump’s entreaties to Black voters won’t work

27 June 2024

Former President Donald Trump is hoping to attract a new segment of the American electorate that's typically been a reliable cornerstone of the Democratic base — Black voters. But one Black U.S. senator is doubtful Trump's outreach will yield any significant results.

In a recent interview with Semafor, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia), who won five elections over two years largely due to African American turnout, said that Black voters are too smart to fall for the ex-president's efforts to court them. However, he acknowledged that high Black voter turnout will determine whether Democrats keep the White House and the U.S. Senate in November.

"This idea that throngs of Black folks are going to vote for Donald Trump, it’s just not true," Warnock said. "It’s not going to happen."

"[Black voters] recognize the existential threat that Donald Trump represents," he continued. "What we’ve got to do is help people see between now and November that this is going to be a close election, and if we don’t turn out, we could see this man, this dangerous man, back in the White House."

One example Warnock cited of Black Americans' skepticism for Trump was his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which a 2020 study from the Health and Human Rights Journal found disproportionately impacted Black people. According to the study, nearly 98 out of every 100,000 African Americans who tested positive for Covid-19 died, which is full third higher than the mortality rate for the Latino population (64.7 per 100,000) and more than double the mortality rate for whites (46.6 per 100,000) and the Asian population (40.4 per 100,000).

“What I remember is a feckless president standing in front of the American people, lying on a regular basis, every day, downplaying the tragic impact of all of this, saying that when it got warm, it was just going to go away, disappear like magic,” the Georgia Democrat told Semafor. “Well, it didn’t disappear like magic.”

Health policy may come up in tonight's debate in Atlanta, Georgia, which will be the first between President Joe Biden and his predecessor of the general election season. Warnock said he was "looking forward" to the event because "it’s going to be a good reminder for people of what they had in Donald Trump."

“The man’s got 34 felony counts. He’s got 91 charges. He’s a little bit busy trying to take care of himself," Warnock said. "And as I talk to Georgians in general and Black Georgians in particular, they’re thinking about their family. They’re thinking about their concerns.”

Trump's efforts to appeal to Black voters have largely been panned for being disingenuous and casually racist. During a February rally prior to the South Carolina Republican primary, Trump said his multiple criminal indictments were a reason why "the Black people like me," and argued that his prosecutions help him with Black people "because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against and they actually viewed me as being discriminated against, it's — it's been pretty amazing."

Click here to read Semafor's report in its entirety.

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