The senior advisor to former presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson told Breitbart News that the black vote is in play and that many black Americans are supporting presumptive GOP nominee Donald J. Trump.

Trump takes at least 11 percent of the black vote nationwide with heavier support in the South, said Armstrong Williams, a national talk show host, who is the country’s largest black owner of televisions.

“Democratic policies are not working,” he said. “The creation of jobs, the creation of entrepreneurship, better education for their children—the ability to carry firearms, all of these issues resonate with our community and you can hear it,” he said.

“It is the same with immigration—people taking their jobs away from them,” Williams said. “They are feeling the same way about refugees—America’s safety should be first and foremost.”

“There are many American blacks across the board, who are supporting Mr. Trump. A lot of them are angry. They have not seen advancement for them, their children or for generations to come,” he said.

Key to Trump’s outreach to black voters is the advise and assist support from Carson, he said. “He has his ear and they communicate on a regular basis.”

Part of the relationship between Trump and Carson is the surgeon’s ability to speak on behalf of the New York developer. Williams said:

Trump knows that Carson believes in him. When he speaks to Speaker Paul Ryan or anybody else, they know that Dr. Carson is not advocating for Donald Trump because he was offered some position that he is jockeying for some role or he wants his name in the paper—he is doing it because he believes in this country and he believes in the foundation of the Republican Party.

When Richard M. Nixon won the black vote against John F. Kennedy in 1960 and received the endorsement of Jackie Robinson to boot, it was the last time Republicans were competitive for their support.

Trump told Howard Kurtz on FoxNews in a Jan. 24 interview black voters support him for the same reason as other Americans: Jobs.

“I am going to do great with the African-Americans,” he said. “The African-Americans love me because they know I am going to bring back the jobs.”

The New York City billionaire said he was horrified by the high unemployment among young blacks and also with blacks in their prime working years. “They want jobs. They’re going to like me more than they like Obama.”

Chauncey DeVega, a Chicago-based contributing writer for Salon.com, told Breitbart News he doubts Trump will do well with black voters.

“Trump, despite his claims, is not polling well with African-Americans. He is doing no better by most accounts than a generic Republican candidate. Trump has extremely high negatives among black voters, Latinos and other people of color,” DeVega said.

“The Republican Party is now fully and in an obvious way the United States’ largest white identity organization. Conservatism and racism in the post civil rights era are fused together,” he said. “Black Americans would have to be profoundly stupid–which they are not–to support a bigot and hate merchant like Donald Trump.”

But, even DeVega accepts that there are black voters supporting Trump.

“There are several ways of thinking about why a very small number of African-Americans vote for Republicans,” he said.

“Some are strategic and believe that black Americans need to support the GOP to give them leverage against the Democratic Party. Other black voters support the Republican Party because their parents and other relatives did so in the past. Some black Republicans are single issue voters on issues like abortion and gun rights,” he said.

The fourth group are professional black friends, he said. “Many, if not most, of today’s black conservatives are political race minstrels for the Republican Party. Being the best black friend for the GOP is extremely lucrative.”

Telly Lovelace, who leads the Republican National Committee‘s outreach to black voters, said he thinks Trump receives historic numbers from the African-American community.

“The African American community is not sold on Hillary Clinton,” he said. Whether it’s revisiting the 1994 crime bill, African Americans do not trust Hillary Clinton. That’s why this is a unique opportunity for us to make significant gains.”

Trump is different, he said.

“He has an entertainment, celebrity factor that is going to help, and a lot of African-Americans are attracted to that,” he said.

“They see him as a successful businessman and someone who’s made it for himself and is a billionaire. Many African Americans want that, so that’s why they’re going to come out and they’re going to seriously consider coming out and supporting him this cycle,” he said.

“With a candidate like Mr. Trump, who’s going to be able to go into states like New York and Pennsylvania, and make them competitive this cycle, there’s some significant opportunities for the Republican party to make gains this cycle,” Lovelace said.

“I know Mr. Trump said he wants 20 to 25 percent, and I think he can come close to that, and we’re going to work hard to make sure that happens.”