Trump’s image as a party-outsider out to shake up the establishment could push GOP support among blacks to levels not seen since Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter

Trump could boost GOP’s black vote to levels not seen in decades

Polls suggest African Americans may bid Barack Obama a stinging farewell by handing Donald Trump the biggest Republican share of the black vote in forty-years. For all the efforts of the Clinton war machine, the media and groups like Black Lives Matter to smear Trump as a racist, the Republican candidate saw his popularity soar among African American voters last week. Of all the things that went wrong for Clinton in the last two weeks, her falling numbers among black voters may be scaring the Democrats most all. A Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California daily tracking poll shows put Trump’s support among black voters at 20.1 percent, an increase of 3.1 percent on Sept. 10. At that rate, he would more than triple the 6% black vote Mitt Romney got in 2012. Meantime, Clinton’s support among black voters plunged 20 points to 70.9. Trump’s message of ‘what have you got to lose’ by voting for him may have a struck a nerve with black voters disappointed with what they got from Barack Obama in eight years.

Not surprisingly, Obama takes it all personally. In a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation on Saturday, he said, “I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy, if this community lets down its guard. “You want to give me a good send off? Go vote!” Obama’s legacy is hardly one that black Americans are universally happy about. There are a higher percentage of blacks struggling below the poverty line. Census Bureau data suggests that number has increased 1.6 percent during Obama’s time in office. During the same period, real median income among black households fell 1.5 percent. Meantime the number of black food-stamp recipients is up a staggering 58.2% according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture while home ownership among black Americans fell 9.1%. On the weekend, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson told WND Obama has “shown no regard for working people. Obama will go down as the most despised and worst president in American history.” “Every key economic indicator shows that blacks are far worse off under Obama than under any other recent president.” Peterson, whose latest book is called, “The Antidote: Healing America From the Poison of Hate, Blame and Victimhood” also ripped Obama over black-on-black shootings in his hometown of Chicago, “surging to over 3000, and all Obama can do is blame guns.”

The fact that Hillary Clinton has ‘D’ next to her name virtually guarantees she’ll win the black vote handily but Trump’s recent surge should give Democrats reason to worry in key battleground states. The Clinton camp may dismiss the GOP 20% support number as an outlier but Trump’s appeal according to Rev. Peterson is that he isn’t seen as a typical Republican. “Most blacks don’t see Donald Trump as a Republican; they see him as blunt-talking successful businessman with a colorful past. Trump is going after the black vote, and exposing how the Democrats have profited by keeping blacks down.” Trump’s image as a party-outsider out to shake up the establishment could push GOP support among blacks to levels not seen since Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter. If it happens to insult Obama on his way out of office, well so be it.

Marc Patrone -- Bio and Archives Marc Patrone has had a long and successful career as a broadcast journalist, columnist and content creator for companies like Sunmedia and Bell Media. His work has been widely distributed and circulated through out the U.S and Canada. He also served as CRTC Commissioner for five years and works as a communications consultant for NY based Third Bridge Consulting. He is a married father of two living in the Toronto area.

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