A new The Hill -HarrisX poll found that Donald Trump’s approval among Black voters rose by nine points amid the Republican National Convention, which concluded on Thursday. As reported by The Hill , the survey found that 24 percent of registered Black voters approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, while 76 percent said they disapproved. In the last poll, the president received just 15 percent approval from the same demographic.
The poll also found that Trump received a 2 percent boost among Hispanics. In the current iteration, 32 points of the voting bloc approved of the president’s job performance compared to 30 percent from the last.
In a piece for The Washington Post , columnist Marc A. Thiessen claimed that Trump’s appeal to Blacks at the RNC was an “outstanding start.”
“While Democrats spent most of their convention last week trying to fire up their lukewarm base, President Trump spent the first night of his convention working to expand his with a concerted appeal to African American voters.”
Thiessen noted that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s African American support lags behind Hillary Clinton’s in 2016, when she lost against Trump, and argued that the U.S. leader has an “outstanding record” he can point to when appealing to the demographic.
As reported by NPR , Trump has been focusing on winning the support of Black Americans to help his re-election bid. In 2016, he won just 8 percent of the black vote, and the publication reports that recent polls show Biden with support from the majority of the demographic.
NPR also suggested that Trump has an uphill battle when it comes to securing significant Black backing.
“The economic shock caused by the response to the pandemic wiped out one of the campaign’s key talking points — low Black unemployment,” the report read.
“And polls showed that most Americans of all races blamed Trump for increasing racial tensions after massive protests broke out about the killing of a Black man, George Floyd, in police custody.”
Still, the president continues to vie for the crucial voting bloc, which could help him win swing states where the battle for power in November will be close.
CNN commentator Van Jones previously argued that Trump is focusing on appealing to the African American community while continuing his hardline immigration approach against Latinos. Jones claimed that the president’s efforts for Black communities thus far can be useful.
Jones’ comments came after the annual State of the Union address, during which the U.S leader honored several Black figures.