Battle for Black voter turnout heats up as the Trump train picks up steam

By Hamil R. Harris
Special to TriceEdneyWire.com

 The Donald Trump political train is picking up steam since it ran through South Carolina and defeated former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley by a 20 percent margin.

But Democratic lawmakers and Civil Rights groups are mobilizing to slow Trump down before his rematch with President Joe Biden on Nov. 5.

Trump received 60 percent or 451,905 votes cast Feb. 24 to defeat Haley and picked up 47 delegates. But Haley, who lost big in a state she won twice for governor, is refusing to get out of the race even though she only won 40 percent or 298, 674 votes to pick up 3 delegates to the Republican Convention in Milwaukee in July.

While Trump needs half of 2,430 delegates to win the nomination the map is looking bleak for Haley and anyone else as Trump’s operatives are picking up endorsements to make Trump appear unstoppable by the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Even though the presidential primary season will last for nearly six months, more than 70 percent of all delegates will be doled out by the end of March and voters in 15 states will go to the polls March 5, which is called Super Tuesday. On Super Tuesday voters will go to the polls in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Vermont. Virginia is expected to hold its presidential primary on March 5, and Iowa’s Democratic mail-in caucus will also conclude Super Tuesday.

On the eve of the South Carolina primary, Trump spoke at the Black Conservative Federation Gala in Columbia, S.C., where he said that Blacks would support him because they see how he has been treated by the justice system.

 “I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against,” Trump told the audience at the Gala.

While Trump was reportedly applauded during his speech, Cedric Richmond, a co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign, said in a statement that Trump’s comments are, “Just plain racist…. He thinks Black voters are so uninformed that we won’t see through his shameless pandering.”

The Democratic National Committee also said in a statement that Trump is “showing Black voters exactly what he thinks of them – and his ideas to win them over are as corny and racist as he is.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, during a news conference on Feb. 24, said “if any Black Republicans had any dignity, they would denounce this characterization of Black folk by Donald Trump…It goes past politics.”  

Sharpton added,  “The nerve to act like we relate to mugshots — we all know ’em mug shots because the criminal justice system, in many cases, wasn’t fair to us.”

Going forward, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation has partnered with the National Action Network, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and more than 20 other partners to unveil the Power of the Ballot: We Won’t Be Erased,” national campaign. Melanie Campbell, President & CEO of the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation, a non-partisan organization, said, “The 2024 presidential election will determine what kind of nation our children will inherit and if we will have the ability to leverage the power of the Black vote to win our fight for voting rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, workers rights, affirmative action, teach Black history, protect public education and the environment, build Black businesses and more.”

Campbell added, “While we are a nonpartisan group, our primary focus is to own the ballot because our Democracy is at stake and the issues that Black voters are concerned about where they are,” Cambell said. “What do you want to do with your vote in terms of the president, Congress, the State legislature?”

“We have lost voting rights, reproductive rights, affirmative action and that is all based on who sits on the court,”

Clayola Brown, National President of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, stated, “This election is critical for the labor and civil rights movements and this pivotal phase of our collective campaign aims to send a message that Black voters are engaged and to highlight the collective POWER we have when Black voices speak at the ballot box.”