By Andrea Shalal and Stephanie Kelly
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -U.S. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris told Black journalists on Tuesday that if elected president she will work with private investors to boost housing supply, acknowledging that more work was needed to lower prices for Americans.
Economic issues were the main issue at the start of the interview, organized by the National Association of Black Journalists and held at a Philadelphia forum in front of about 180 people.
"One of the big issues that affects people right now in terms of the economy and their economic wellbeing is we have a shortage of housing supply," Harris said. "It's too expensive."
Harris reiterated a plan to expand the child tax credit to $6,000. She repeated a pledge that Americans not pay more than 7% of their income on childcare.
The event was scheduled after the U.S. vice president did not attend the group's convention in Chicago in July when her Republican rival Donald Trump, in an interview, questioned her Black identity.
Former President Trump's appearance at that event led to controversy over his comments and his treatment of one of the moderators over a line of questioning he assailed as unfair.
Black voters supported then-candidate Joe Biden 92% to 8% over the then-incumbent Trump in the 2020 presidential election, according to the Pew Research Center. Most Black voters, 63%, plan to support Harris, compared with 13% for Trump, according to an NAACP survey released this month.
However, some Black voters are losing faith in the Democratic Party. Over one quarter of younger Black men say they would support Trump this election, the NAACP poll showed.
"Black men are like any other voting group," Harris said. "You gotta earn their vote."
The interview was conducted by three of the organization's members, as was Trump's, in this case reporters from TheGrio and Politico as well as an anchor for WHYY-FM, a public radio station.
Both Harris and Trump have made efforts to win over Black voters, whose support may be decisive in the closely fought Nov. 5 vote, especially in a handful of battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Some forecasters regard Pennsylvania as a must-win state.
In Georgia, an intense battle is being waged for the Black voters who make up a third of the state's population, the biggest proportion of Black voters in any of the seven battleground states.
Harris' late entry into the race ignited a burst of popular enthusiasm, but an absence of many specifics in some policy areas was expected to prompt questions about education, the economy and criminal justice - all of particular interest to Black voters.
Trump's attempt to pull in more support from Black voters is complicated by their traditional loyalty to the Democratic Party, his past racist remarks and a history of Republican-backed voting restrictions that activists say make it harder for Black residents to vote. Republicans deny trying to suppress the vote.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Philadelphia, Stephanie Kelly and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Howard Goller)
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