After Being Courted by Trump, African Americans, Latinos Face Economic Blow From Coronavirus

The financial hardship caused by the 🦠Coronavirus Outbreak could fall particularly hard on African Americans and Latinos, undoing economic gains President 👤Donald Trump has touted in his outreach to those key voting blocs ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

With job cuts hitting U.S. states as governors and companies order offices and workplaces closed, African Americans and Latinos are particularly vulnerable because they more often have jobs that cannot be done at home.

“That will make them more severely impacted by an extended coronavirus shutdown of the economy,” said Jay Shambaugh, a White House economist during Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration.

Labor Department data shows that just 19.7% of African Americans and 16.2% of Hispanics said they could work at home in 2017 and 2018, compared with 29.9% of whites.

The department’s most recent data on unemployment benefits showed a nationwide surge in new filings, with many states reporting layoffs in service industries like hotels and restaurants, according to the department’s March 19 report.

Those are industries where African Americans and Latinos make up outsized shares of employment, including hotels where the two groups make up nearly half of employees.

While African Americans and Hispanics overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump over his immigration policies and handling of race relations, the Trump campaign has increased its outreach to those groups in hopes of picking off enough votes to win potentially razor-thin contests in electoral swing states.

African Americans and Hispanics will comprise about a quarter of eligible voters in November, slightly more than in the 2016 election, according to the Pew Research Center. Their votes could be key in battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida that helped propel the Republican Trump to victory in 2016.