A poll conducted by UCLA for its Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape project revealed that younger black voters hold much more favorable opinions of President Trump than do their elders.
According to results released on Wednesday, the poll showed that 29 percent of black voters from age 30 through 44 have either a “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable” view of the president. Twenty-one percent of those aged 18-29 hold similar views. These contrast sharply with their elders: just 14 percent of those aged 45-64 are favorable toward the president, while nine percent of those 65 and older are favorable.
Rob Smith, a black conservative activist who contributes to Turning Point USA, thinks it’s “because they’re tired of hearing the same stories about victimhood, racism, and zero answers that the left has been giving for years.”
Robert Woodson, a former campaign advisor to President George W. Bush and founder of the Woodson Center, thinks that younger blacks are increasingly independent of their elders and their political stance:
I think you’re seeing a more independent strain through younger blacks who are able to look beyond the ideology and the personality and make decisions more on objective reasons to vote for people….
They’re willing to look at the content of the issues that have nothing to do with race, but having to do with practical applications of policies like education, entrepreneurship.… There’s just more of an openness [among young blacks] to look beyond race.
He added: “[The change is] because blacks have been duped over the past 50 years by Democrats and liberals to only look at life through the prism of race and partisan politics.”
That change has been building for some time. Back in December, a series of polls showed black support for the president surging. An Emerson College poll put support for Trump at 35 percent of black voters, while a Marist College poll reported support for the president at 33 percent. A Rasmussen poll confirmed these numbers, showing support for Trump among blacks at 34 percent.
A week ago, The New American reported that the number is even higher: 41 percent of likely black voters approve of the president’s performance. And just days ago, Rasmussen reported that “Our Daily Presidential Tracking poll today [June 5] shows Black Likely Voter approval of the job Donald Trump is doing is now over 40 percent.”
Conservative media personality Michael Graham explained why these numbers are so important: “If Donald Trump came anywhere close to those numbers on Election Day, he’d likely win a 50-state sweep.”
But, according to Jonathan Zogby of Zogby Analytics, Trump doesn’t need anything like that number to win in November. All he needs, to win, is between 10 and 15 percent. Anything more than that would be a bonus.
Photo: AP Images
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
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