Martin Luther King III says Black men should not be blamed for outcome in 2024 election
If Vice President Kamala Harris loses the upcoming presidential election, Black men should not be to blame, said Martin Luther King III, son of the civil rights icon.
"This election is not going to be won or lost by the number of Black men that support or do not support (Harris), even though it's going to be probably razor-thin," King told Paste BN in an interview Thursday. "You can't go and say, well, it's Black men's fault."
"That's where it seems like it's trying to go," he added.
Black men have historically been a core constituency for Democrats. But in Harris' 2024 race against Republican former President Donald Trump, support among these voters for the Democratic ticket has been reportedly slipping.
Polls show Harris still winning a majority of Black men. In a New York Times/Siena College survey earlier this month, 70% of Black men said they would vote for Harris, while 20% picked Trump and 10% were undecided or declined to answer.
Her support is down though from President Joe Biden who won 87% of Black male voters in 2020, according to Pew Research Center.
And in a race as neck-and-neck as this year's, every vote stands to swing the final outcome.
But King, the oldest son of Martin Luther King, Jr., said Black men alone do not shoulder the responsibility for Democrats seeking to hold onto the White House.
"To win this election, it takes a coalition of women, of men, of Black men, of white men, of everyone, Latino and Hispanic people, in some cases Native American people," King said.
The narrative that Black men will have cost Harris, who would be the first woman and woman of color elected president in the U.S., the Oval Office, is already being "set up," King said. Reports of anxiety from Democrats regarding Black men's support this election have ignited in recent weeks.
Former President Barack Obama put a spotlight on the concern during a stop at a Harris campaign office in Pittsburgh earlier this month. He suggested that misogyny could be to blame for clouding their judgment.
"You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses,” Obama said in an address directed to Black men. “Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
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Black men are not the only voting bloc Democrats are focused on − and concerned about.
The vice president has seemingly lost ground with Latino voters, who in a Paste BN/Suffolk University poll released this week picked Trump over Harris 49% to 38%. In a similar poll in August, Latino voters favored Harris 53% to 37%.
With so much attention currently on Black men, King and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, told Paste BN they expect these voters and their decisions to be heavily scrutinized post-Election Day. But would Black men get as much credit for a Harris win as they would for blame for her loss?
"Probably not," Waters King said. "I think that it's like, as Martin said, it seems the narrative is more skewed to blaming."