Trump Polls in the Low Single Digits Among Black Voters
President Donald Trump will appear at a 2020 candidate forum to be held at a historically black college in South Carolina to discuss the future of criminal justice reform. Also confirmed to attend are nine top 2020 Democratic Presidential candidates.
The White House has confirmed Trump accepted the invitation to attend the Benedict College event, which will be held next weekend, October 25-27, according to The State. The surprising acceptance – Trump polls at just 4% or less among Black voters – “was closely-guarded by organizers, who feared the president would either change his mind or alienate those who had already committed to attending or participating.”
There was “initially little expectation he would choose to put himself in a scenario that could quickly turn politically toxic,” The State notes, adding that “Trump could face an embarrassingly low show of support” in the HBCU’s first-ever straw poll.
In August Politico reported on the Trump campaign’s desire to “woo” Black voters, saying “the campaign hopes that if it can shave just a few percentage points off Democrats’ overwhelming support among black voters, it can boost voter turnout in eight or so key states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — each of which Trump won in 2016 by less than 1 percentage point.” Those attempts so far have been shredded as a “waste of time.”
Benedict College’s website shows nine top Democrats confirmed to attend the “Second Step Presidential Justice Forum,” hosted by the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center, as does this Facebook posting from the college:
Confirmed, per the 20/20 Center are: Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Cory Booker, Secretary Julian Castro, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and Congressman John Delaney.
“A Quinnipiac University poll released on July 30 showed that 80 percent of African American voters surveyed consider Trump a racist,” Politico added.
It does not appear the candidates will be on stage together at the same time.
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