As Super Tuesday looms, the New York mayor has been emphasizing his push for gun legislation and policies on systemic racism

As Mike Bloomberg heads into the primary elections on Super Tuesday, the question of whether black voters will be able to look past the New York mayor’s legacy of stop-and-frisk continues to loom over his campaign.

Bloomberg has poured millions into progressive efforts such as the climate crisis and gun violence prevention: two issues that disproportionately harm black people. On Wednesday, Bloomberg appeared in San Francisco to kick off a series of events highlighting his record of standing up to the gun lobby and pushing for stricter gun legislation.

Still, to win the 3 March primary elections, happening in 14 states, he’ll have to convince a diverse electorate that those efforts outweigh the legacy of racist policies like stop-and-frisk, the practice that allowed police to detain, question and search people for weapons or contraband and was found to be unconstitutional in 2013. Although Bloomberg has since apologized for the tactic, his association with it continues to raise questions about whether he can garner support from the black electorate he needs to win the primary.

Q&A What is Super Tuesday? Show Hide It’s the day when the greatest number of US states cast their votes to nominate presidential candidates, who will eventually compete for the White House in November’s general election. It is the biggest day in the US election calendar apart from election day itself. The candidates have each held hundreds of meet-and-greet events, travelled thousands of miles, eaten a lot of junk food, and their campaigns have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get them to this make-or-break moment. In 2020, Super Tuesday falls on 3 March. Both Democrats and Republicans will be voting, but because Donald Trump does not face any serious challengers, all eyes will be on the Democratic contest. The early voting states – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina – have all had their say over the past month, with Bernie Sanders emerging as the possible national frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination. But now, 14 states across the country – Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia – as well as one US territory (American Samoa) and Democrats abroad will cast their votes on the same day.

In interviews with more than a dozen black residents in Oakland and Richmond, California, the Guardian found most had written the billionaire off years ago because of stop-and-frisk. However, now that Bloomberg’s campaign is in full swing, some – particularly voters over 50 – have softened their stances and believe Bloomberg has the best chance of beating Trump despite his track record. Others saw Bloomberg as the Donald Trump of the Democratic field: wealthy and out of touch, and felt that if his exorbitant wealth doesn’t disqualify him, then the racist legacy of stop-and-frisk should.

Bloomberg, who entered the presidential race late last year, has poured more than $500m into advertising alone to make himself a viable candidate. In mid-February, he also unveiled several policy plans and advertisements aimed directly at black voters, including his Greenwood Initiative which would focus on economic inequality and systemic racism in black communities throughout the US.

In California, according to a poll commissioned by KQED, northern California’s public broadcaster, Bloomberg has less than 5% of black voters’ support. The only candidates that rank lower are congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Ohio native Tyler Robinson, 26, said he sees Bloomberg as indistinguishable from the rest of the all-white democratic pool of Democratic candidates. And while he agreed that stop-and-frisk is a large blemish on Bloomberg’s record, he’s not sure it’s any more egregious than policies put forth by the other political veterans in the race.

“You can find hella things that make you not wanna vote for a candidate,” Robinson says. “I don’t think Bloomberg is worse than Trump because at least he has a filter, and a little experience.”

Even though Robinson says his grandmother is active in Ohio’s political scene, and brought him into the fold as a teenager, Robinson says that he is turned off by traditional politics because of long standing racial disparities and is considering abstaining from this year’s elections.

“When I tell older people that I’m not voting they bring up the ancestors. But I’m just trying to find the balance between optimism, pessimism and realism,” he continued.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mike Bloomberg poses for pictures with supporters at a campaign event in Houston. Photograph: David J Phillip/Associated Press

Yet, others think Bloomberg has a decent chance at beating Trump, and in an election where the priority is getting the current president out of office, that can outweigh a candidate’s sketchy past.

“Bloomberg’s been around a long time, and he might be the man, his ticket looks good,” said Wendell Hunter, 62, of Richmond.

“People think he’s gonna ‘Donald Trump’ his way through the race, but I don’t think so,” he said in response to critiques that Bloomberg is using his wealth to buy the election.

“I don’t mind Bloomberg because he’s trying to clean up the inner city,” echoed Steven Minor, 55, also of Richmond. “Our communities just aren’t clean, we need drugs off the street. There are youngsters 11, 12, 13, and 14 years old running around with guns.”

According to the 2019 Black Census Report, a survey of more than 30,000 black Americans, community gun violence is a top concern for the majority of census participants. Some in the violence prevention community see Bloomberg’s large donations to groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety, the nation’s largest gun control group, as a promising sign that he can get stalled federal gun legislation passed.

Aaron Foster, 48, a community organizer from Fresno, volunteered to join the multi-city bus tour of gun violence survivors speaking out in favor of Bloomberg’s presidential run.

Foster lost two children to gun violence: his son Aaron was killed at 21, his daughter Kayla at 18. He said he supported Bloomberg because of his track record of investment in business opportunities for communities like his. He’s also encouraged by the fact that Bloomberg’s fight for gun control and willingness to confront the National Rifle Association started long before his presidential run.

“We know what he did with stop-and-frisk, he made a mistake, and he apologized,” Foster said after a news conference in San Francisco.

The Fresno activist emphasized that he did not want to minimize the harm done by stop-and-frisk, which he called “totally unconstitutional”. But conceded that Bloomberg is “the only person that can beat Trump. I don’t think that anyone else has the – I don’t want to say the balls – the courage.”