Trump is gaining ground with some Black men. Here's how Harris can change their minds

Kamala Harris has reset the presidential race, but questions remain about whether one crucial Democratic voting bloc will turn out in similar numbers to previous years. White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López spoke with several Black men about what Harris needs to do to win their votes.

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Amna Nawaz: Well, Kamala Harris has reset the presidential race, but questions remain if one crucial Democratic voting bloc will turn out in similar numbers to previous years.

Laura Barron-Lopez spoke with several Black men about what Harris needs to do to win their votes.

Antoine Carter, Milwaukee Resident: I would love to know what makes her Kamala, as opposed to Joe Biden’s vice president.

Laura Barron-Lopez: On Milwaukee’s East Side, 39-year-old Antoine Carter says he’s still learning about Kamala Harris.

How did you vote in the 2020 election?

Antoine Carter: I voted against Trump.

Laura Barron-Lopez: So for Joe Biden?

(Laughter)

Antoine Carter: Yes, you can say that.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Carter says there’s still no way he’d vote for former President Donald Trump, but he’s uncertain if he will cast his ballot for Harris or stay home.

Do you think that Democrats have taken Black voters for granted?

Antoine Carter: For sure. For sure. From my perspective, what I see is, they assume that our vote is guaranteed.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Black voters, especially women, are expected to once again overwhelmingly support Democrats this November, and enthusiasm has surged for Harris.

Joe Biden, President of the United States: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Though President Biden won 91 percent of the Black vote in 2020, Republicans made marginal gains with Black men, with Trump winning about 12 percent of them.

And, this year, polls from before Harris entered the race showed Trump’s support among Black men had climbed to about 20 percent.

Rod Adams, New Justice Project: There are a lot of folks who are open to it, people don’t feel like they have a political home.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Rod Adams runs a social justice nonprofit in Minneapolis that he started following the murder of George Floyd.

Today, his group organizes conversations among young Black men. Some of them, Adam says, are open to voting for Donald Trump.

Rod Adams: I think that the Black men who voted for Democrats for the past several elections, they want to do that, but they also want to be courted. These are folks who are living paycheck to paycheck.

There has not been a plan that has been laid out for them. And because of that, folks feel like, even if they vote for Harris, their communities won’t change.

Donald Trump, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I seem to be doing very well with Black males.

Laura Barron-Lopez: The former president is trying to win over Black voters at the margins in key states.

Question: Why should Black voters trust you?

Laura Barron-Lopez: Last month, while speaking to a gathering of Black journalists in Chicago, Trump said immigrants were taking — quote — “Black jobs.”

Donald Trump: A Black job is anybody that has a job. That’s what it is, anybody that has a job.

Laura Barron-Lopez: And questioned the vice president’s racial identity.

Donald Trump: So, I don’t know. Is she Indian or is she black?

Question: She has always identified as a black woman.

Donald Trump: But you know what? I respect…

Rod Adams: The more in which we see Trump, and the more in which we see Trump make racist attacks on Kamala Harris, we’re going to see some of that Black coalition come back to Kamala.

Laura Barron-Lopez: But Adams also says Harris needs to focus on issues that Black voters care about most, including raising the minimum wage, lowering the cost of housing and criminal justice reform.

He’s supporting Harris, but Adams says concerns remain about the fact that she was a former prosecutor.

Narrator: Kamala Harris has spent decades fighting violent crime.

Rod Adams: A lot of Black voters, they call her a cop and say that she was one of the drivers of mass incarceration in California. Some of that is misinformation, but those are the things that folks are bringing up.

Folks have been traumatized. Me, particularly, my mom went to prison, my dad went to prison. All of my siblings are felons. I have dealt with issues to criminal justice system too. So that is one of our kitchen table issues.

Laura Barron-Lopez: But back in the crucial state of Wisconsin, many voters don’t need any more convincing.

David Dunn, Harris Supporter: Her background and upbringing and then her experience, it kind of defines what politics may look like going forward.

Laura Barron-Lopez: At a weekend festival in Milwaukee, we met 34-year-old David Dunn. He and his wife are excited about Kamala Harris.

David Dunn: Even if you don’t feel that we’re ready for a Black woman president, I guess the question would be, do we feel that we’re ready for four more years of Donald Trump?

Laura Barron-Lopez: Across town, 34-year-old Devon Madison voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

Devon Madison, Milwaukee Resident: I voted for Trump because I thought it would be better for jobs, yes, finding better jobs and helping, I guess, me and other people I know find a place to work.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Was it better for jobs?

Devon Madison: No, not at all.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Madison says he regrets voting for Trump. He likes some of what he’s heard about Harris’ plans on trying to make housing more affordable, but he’s skeptical it’ll actually help him.

Are you going to vote in November at all?

Devon Madison: No, no, probably not.

She doesn’t really appeal to, like, my current circumstances and the things I have going on, as well as a lot of people I know. To sum it all up, it’s like broken promises, fake promises, talking about doing certain things that they’re not going to really do.

Cliff Albright, Black Voters Matter: You all know we got a big election coming up, right?

Laura Barron-Lopez: Black voters staying home this year is a fear for progressive organizer Cliff Albright.

Cliff Albright: The largest bloc voters is neither Democrat or Republican, but those registered voters that don’t vote, which in any given year can be close to 50 percent.

And so that’s always a concern.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Albright is the executive director of Black Voters Matter, an organization that works to boost voter turnout in communities of color.

Cliff Albright: Organizing everybody that comes in that gas station.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Earlier this week, we joined him on what he calls the Blackest Bus in America as it rolled through Chicago’s South Side.

Man: How you doing, brother?

Cliff Albright: I’m Cliff, Stan, Cliff.

Laura Barron-Lopez: While he admits many Black men distrust the political system, he says they remain one of the most reliable voting blocs for Democrats.

Cliff Albright: Black men routinely are going to vote at least 85 percent for a Democratic candidate.

Whatever critiques I may have of Democrats in general, of Biden, even of Kamala Harris, at the end of the day, Trump is not delivering on anything that really benefits our community. The only thing that he’s really concerned about is what benefits himself.

Laura Barron-Lopez: That’s a message Antoine Carter agrees with. And while he’s more excited with Harris at the top of the ticket, he wants to hear more.

What does she need to do at the end of the day to win your vote?

Antoine Carter: She needs to, one, kind of show me a plan, like put something on paper, let me see something, things like the economy, things like education. I have a 12-year-old who’s in the seventh grade. We’re just making sure that neighborhoods are safer and schools have more rigor.

And I know the president can’t do it all, but I know the president puts people in place to make those decisions.

Laura Barron-Lopez: The Harris campaign says they’re already seeing a shift among Black men toward the vice president.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Laura Barron-Lopez in Chicago.