By now, you’ve probably heard the message loud and clear from Democrats: This election is about unity.
D Today, explained The podcast team was at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, and inside and outside the confines of the United Center, Democrats are buzzing with excitement and relief: They now believe they have a real shot at winning the White House in 2024, and the party’s toughest issues are a welcome conversation. Not the subject.
Tonight, after accepting the party’s nomination earlier in the week from the campaign trail, Kamala Harris will appear in Chicago to close out the convention, bearing the mantle of “new sense of hope” Michelle Obama — and the rest of the Democratic Party — bestowed upon her.
First though, Today, explained From Gaza policy to identity politics, Harris sat down with three black women representatives to ask about the thorny challenges Democrats will face in the 11 weeks leading up to Election Day.
The representatives are:
- Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton58
- Hello AylaFormer Virginia State Assembly member, 51
- Moe JenkinsPrecinct Chair in Harris County, Texas, 25
All three are committed to casting their votes for Harris and consider their role in supporting and defending the principles of the Democratic Party. But we picked the party’s scabs a bit and found that even the most staunch Democrats are willing to admit that black voters and nonvoters haven’t been a sure block of their support for decades, and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has caused a worrying rift between the ruling party and young progressives.
Here’s what they had to say. You can hear more of the discussion here Today, explained.
US policy toward Gaza and Israel remains an open sore for young progressives
Americans disapprove of Israeli military action in Gaza this summer, but 48 percent still disapprove, according to a Gallup poll Conducted in June. This week, thousands of protesters, mostly keffiyeh-clad and young, awaited Joe Biden and Kamala Harris — or “Massacre Joe and Killer Orange” to them — in Chicago. On Monday, they gathered in Union Park and marched in a circle outside the convention center to demand an end to US aid to Israel. They will march along the same route before Harris’ acceptance speech on Thursday.
This is a live issue for many voters, but especially for people like Hala Ayala, who is of Lebanese descent.
Ayala noted that Harris called for an “immediate cease-fire” in March and told us he met with Harris and felt met on the Gaza issue. “I took it for granted because it is who it is, and I took it because there’s more work to be done,” he said.
The Gaza issue is also complicated for Gen Z politician Moe Jenkins. About 50 percent of Democrats or Democratic-leaning young adults under 30 say they More sympathetic to the Palestinians than Israelis, according to Pew. That doesn’t always line up with party loyalty: The Biden administration just approved the sale $20 billion in arms to Israel In the next five years.
When his black constituents complained to him that pro-Palestinian activists were refusing to support a black female candidate for president or not paying enough attention to the neglected wars in Sudan or the Congo, Jenkins said he told them he had to join the system. about change
When they ask why he’s leaving them out in the cold, his response is: “‘I’m not leaving you out in the cold … unless I do what’s necessary to make sure we’re going to end the Arctic. Donald Trump won’t be president.’
The Democratic Party no longer has the default support of black Americans
Whether black voters will turn to Harris like they have for Democratic candidates in the past won’t be clear until after the election, but much has been made in recent months about flagging party support among black Americans.
supports data The idea that the once-reliable Dem bloc has split significantly since 2008, with more black voters saying they plan to vote for former President Donald Trump instead. That was certainly true when Joe Biden was at the top of the ticket, and now, even with Harris as the Democrats’ presidential nominee, a significant portion of black voters still lean toward Trump.
Seventy percent of black voters polled in July chose Harris over Trump on a hypothetical ballot, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, up from 59 percent who supported Biden in May and June polls. But Trump’s share of the black vote also rose slightly, from 9 percent in May and June to 12 percent in July.
Ayala, a Woodbridge, Virginia-based representative, said he was well aware of this shift in party loyalties: “Yes, there has been a split. [between Black men and women on politics]. We saw it. As such, we cannot deny it.”
Jenkins said her black male constituents in Houston often tell her they’re voting for Trump “because he handed me a stimulus check.” He said he would remind them that their check “has been delayed Because he wanted his name on it. … I think it’s a confusion about the policy process.”
His concern is whether he and other Democrats can effectively set the record straight and make enough of a case for these Trump-leaning black voters before Election Day.
Identity politics can stumble
This is a very identity- and social justice-forward DNC. It’s a state where Kamala Harris feels comfortable, but it also raises questions for Democrats: Will a focus on identity help them win the White House in November?
Many analysts have urged the Harris campaign to avoid speaking directly about her race and gender. We asked our roundtable about the theoretical 49-year-old white man from Michigan, a toss-up vote who has voted Democrat in the past. Will Harris speaking out about her identity as a black and South Asian woman hurt her chances of getting the vote?
Stratton, Illinois’ lieutenant governor, stressed that the Democratic Party must also talk about economic issues that affect the entire middle class, to engage voters like him in discussions about “workers’ rights” and to make sure we stand with organized labor. When we talk about reducing gas prices and food prices and all those other things, there are a lot of things that we have to put in place.
“These are things that everyday Americans want to know.”
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