CNN correspondent Danny Freeman asked Democratic South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn on Friday if the Democratic coalition is entering deep water among young black voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ holds a 55-point lead against Republican nominee Donald Trump among black voters under the age of 60, which lags behind President Joe Biden’s 71-point lead among the same demographic in 2020, according to a CNN/SSRS poll from Thursday. Clyburn denied that the decreasing support among young black voters indicates trouble for the Democratic Party, expressing optimism that Harris will win over 95% of the vote among that demographic.
“So when you’re looking at this generational divide … do you fear that this could be a sign of a larger, longer-term problem for the Democratic coalition if they’re losing the support of younger black voters, particularly black men?” Freeman asked.
“I don’t know that we’re losing support with younger black men, I talk to them all the time,” Clyburn said. “I hang out on HBCU campuses. I deal with the youth council of the NAACP all across this country. We are having an issue connecting with these young people where they hang out. They don’t hang out the way us older people used to hang out. We have to meet people where they are. So I think that we’re beginning to see is that Kamala Harris is doing great job of now with digital connection, which needs to be done if you’re gonna get to these young people and I think that’s going to improve.”
Trump performs best among black voters under the age of 40 with 22% support, according to the CNN poll. The former president has been improving among black voters at historic levels for a Republican nominee, as both President Joe Biden and Harris’ numbers among this demographic have shrunken in comparison to past elections for a Democratic nominee.
The vice president leads Trump among likely black voters with 79% to 16%, according to CNN. Her 63-point lead is a drop from the 2020 election, where Biden garnered a 75-point lead among black voters, according to exit polls from 2020.
Harris holds an 87-point lead among black voters aged 60, just 2 points above Biden’s 85-point margin in 2020, according to CNN.
The poll surveyed 2,074 registered voters between Sept. 19-22 with a 3% margin of error for the full sample. The oversample of black registered voters added up to 579 and had a margin of error of 7.8%.
Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden during the 2020 presidential primary is largely credited for Biden’s overwhelming victory in the 2020 South Carolina primary, where he reportedly won 61% of the black vote, according to The Washington Post. The vast majority of black voters, 60%, cited Clyburn’s endorsement as a key factor in their decision making in the primary.
Before Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, his lead among black voters under the age of 50 shrunk from over 80 points in 2020 to 37 points in 2024, CNN’s Harry Enten found in June.
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