Republican Donald Trump is gaining steam with black voters while Vice President Harris is falling behind with the key group, which was polling at 90% for Democrats four years ago, a new survey shows.
The New York Times/Sienna College released Saturday found 78% of likely black voters would support Harris, a slight increase from the 74% who said they’d back President Biden in a head-to-head contest with Trump.
But Biden, who dropped out of the 2024 race in July, captured 90% of the demographic when he beat Trump in 2020.
The decline in support could hurt Harris’ chances of winning key battleground states in November.
Roughly 15% of likely black voters said they planned to vote for Trump, a six-point jump for the former president from 2020. The remaining 7% polled were undecided or refused to give an opinion.
Much of the drop in Harris’ support is fueled by a growing feeling that Democrats failed to deliver on earlier promises, with 40% of black voters under 30 saying the GOP is more likely to deliver on campaign commitments, the poll showed.
Like other constituencies, black voters are not happy with the economy under the current administration.
Nearly three-quarters rated the economy fair or poor, while 73% said they had cut back on groceries because of rising prices and 56% said they had cut back often.
The poll, conducted Sept. 29 through Oct. 6, included 589 blacks nationwide and had a 5.6% margin of error.
Also on Saturday, a pair of polls conducted by the Times, Siena College and Philadelphia Inquirer of two key battleground states — Pennsylvania and Arizona – found neither Trump nor Harris gaining a clear advantage heading into the final stretch of the presidential race.
Harris maintained a four-point edge in Pennsylvania, while Trump has continued his solid lead of six points in Arizona. The latest numbers are nearly identical to the similar polling a month earlier.
