PHILADELPHIA — Maurice Floyd is tired of liberal intellectuals who insist on speaking for all black voters.

“They want us to fit into their mold,” said the veteran political operative. They “don’t dig deep down to really find out what is really on the consciousness of African-Americans.”

Because black voters tend to overwhelmingly vote Democrat, candidates and pundits often assume they share the same views as progressives, supporting third-trimester abortions, the Green New Deal and Medicare for all, Floyd said.

“I don’t think black voters are really that progressive,” he said. “They’re pretty moderate. They care about their community. They care about their schools. They care about getting a decent paycheck.”

The most recent Pew survey of Democratic voters shows just that. Black voters characterize their values as more moderate than liberal, with 40 percent of black Democrats calling themselves moderate, 30 percent conservative and only 28 percent liberal.

It’s a stark contrast to white voters in their own party, where 55 percent of white Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters identify themselves as liberal, while 35 percent describe themselves as moderate and only 8 percent as conservative.

Joann Bell, who once served as the Pennsylvania governor’s executive director on African-American affairs, said black voters are especially more conservative when it comes to economic issues. Everyday concerns like being able to put food on the table will usually come before more global causes, such as fighting climate change.

“Not everybody,” Bell said, “has the luxury of being progressive.”

So far, among the 21 Democratic candidates in the primary field, some have openly embraced the progressive label while others have danced around it, but only one — Joe Biden — has avoided being boxed into any kind of designation.

If they’re not enthusiastic about a candidate, it could depress turnout at the ballot box and help get Trump re-elected.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that black Democratic voters overwhelmingly back him as their candidate right now. According to a March Quinnipiac poll, Biden holds 44 percent support from black voters, giving him a double-digit advantage over his nearest competitor, Bernie Sanders.

No one is suggesting that black voters will suddenly support Donald Trump for president, but if they’re not enthusiastic about a candidate, it could depress turnout at the ballot box and help get Trump re-elected.

In 2016, according to an analysis from the Washington Post, Clinton saw at least a 10 percent decline in vote totals in most counties with a nonwhite majority nationwide — such as Philadelphia County — compared to Obama in 2012. In a fifth of these counties, Republicans actually saw a small gain in votes.

Philadelphia City Council president Darrell Clarke said it’s wrong to assume the black community will vote on identity politics rather than issues closer to home.

He points to the fact that a white candidate, Jim Kenney, beat a black candidate, Anthony Williams, in the race for mayor of Philadelphia in 2015, even though nearly 44 percent of the city’s population is black.

“I think African-Americans pretty much want what everybody else wants: access to good health care, jobs, a good education, a home and a safe community,” Clarke said.

Currently, there are three black candidates running for president in the Democratic primary. Though Clarke has not officially endorsed anyone in that race, he admits he is leaning strongly towards one candidate.

“It’s likely going to be Joe,” he said. “I haven’t made an official decision yet. But I know Joe Biden quite well.”

Malcolm Kenyatta, the first openly gay person of color elected to the Pennsylvania state legislature last year, said he is also supporting Biden. Kenyatta said he wants to prioritize issues that impact his district over identity politics.

“People in my community are practical,” he said. “I certainly consider myself to be a progressive, but when I go home people want to know [if] I am working with my Republican colleagues to get things done. It is a constant question I get, and I think they care a lot less about whether or not folks are ‘politically pure.'”

Floyd, who has never worked for Biden, said many of the Democratic presidential candidates are running on issues that voters aren’t even thinking about, such as restoring voting rights to the Boston Marathon bomber.

“Let me put that in perspective,” he said, recalling a mayoral forum on gentrification and guns held in Philadelphia recently. “They asked the people in the room whose kids or relatives were killed by guns to stand up. I swear almost everybody in the place stood up. It was so heartbreaking.”

It’s unlikely that any of those constituents would want to restore voting rights to the person who killed their family member, said Floyd.

A candidate like Biden understands this sentiment, he added, and that’s why he’s likely backing him for president.

“I want somebody that just has some common sense,” he said. “Just some common sense.”

Salena Zito is the author of “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics” (Crown Forum), out now.