At Trump rally in Atlanta, Black attendees say Kamala Harris playing 'race card' for votes

ATLANTA - When Vice President Kamala Harris entered the 2024 presidential race , Donald Trump tried to dismiss her identity as the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent on a major party ticket by labeling her a “ DEI hire ,” suggesting that her historic achievements are due to her race and gender.

The talking point seemed to be sticking with Trump supporters at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday, even among those who identified as people of color.

Andrea Smith, a Black woman who volunteers with the Trump campaign and is running for state representative in Georgia’s District 41 north of Atlanta, asserted that Democrats were leaning into identity politics to win the election.

“The fact that she’s a woman and she’s Black, Democrats will play that race card to get more people to vote for her,” Smith said.

Harris a focus of Trump rally

Saturday marked Trump’s first visit to Georgia since the June 27 debate where he knocked the decisive blow to President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. Trump and his surrogates used his return to Atlanta to attack Harris, the country's first female and first Black woman to be vice president and whose presence hung heavy in the crowd.

Republicans packed into the same venue that Harris had appeared in just five days earlier. Flashing signs around the arena warned attendees that Harris was “weak, failed, and dangerously liberal.”

Other signs touted her as the “first Indian American” person elected to the U.S. Senate, a nod to Trump’s recent interview with the National Association of Black Journalists .

Trump suggested during his interview that Harris had “turned Black,” solely identifying as South Asian until it was convenient for her. Harris is of Jamaican and Indian heritage . She attended Howard University , one of the largest historically Black colleges in the nation.

Supporters repeated this claim at the rally. Smith questioned Harris’ race, saying, “I think she’s got a Jamaican father and an Asian mom. And living in the Black community, I’m not 100% sure about that. And that matters to people, to make sure she’s really part of the community.”

Trump’s standing with Black voters

Trump has spent years trying to court Black voters. In the 2020 election, 87% of Black voters cast their ballot for Biden.

The majority of those in attendance at the Atlanta rally were white. But many of the Black rally-goers were eager to defend Trump and his record.

For John Williams, a 46-year-old DJ from Lithonia, Georgia, it was Trump’s ability to make business deals with foreign countries that attracted him to the former president. As a Black man, he said he didn’t believe Harris, as a Black woman, would be able to handle the same type of international dealings.

“Unfortunately, we do live in a world with race,” Williams said. “The United States is not racist like that, but if you want to talk about these other countries, you don’t see our Black people buying land in places like Russia or China.”

Others believed that the Democratic Party was focusing on Harris’ race because she didn’t have the qualifications to stand on her own.

Floyd Narcisso, a 72-year-old man from Nicaragua, said “liberals were using color to represent them and avoiding the character” of Harris.

Narcisso claimed that Harris didn’t have the “intellectual preparation” to run the country. “I have a third-grade education, but I can see when someone is dumb.”

Melissa Cruz is an elections reporting fellow who focuses on voter access issues for the USA TODAY Network. You can reach her at mcruz@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, at @MelissaWrites22.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: At Trump rally in Atlanta, Black attendees say Kamala Harris playing 'race card' for votes