Exit polling Tuesday night indicates that Black men may have defected from the Democratic Party in significant numbers during the 2020 election.
The NBC News exit poll conducted in-person polling at voting centers in eight states, as well as telephone polls in 24 states. The news outlet is reporting that by the end of Election Day yesterday, 100,000 total interviews were conducted.
It’s worth noting that in an election marred by a public health pandemic caused by COVID-19, two-thirds of voters in the 2020 election voted early or by mail, therefore exit polls may not show a clear picture of voting trends.
The results of the poll show that just 80 percent of Black men supported Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden. That number is down from 82 percent who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, significantly lower than the support of the second term of Barack Obama’s presidency, which was 87 percent, and tremendously lower than Obama’s first term in 2008, an election in which he won the support of Black men at a historic high of 95 percent.
The reasons behind the defection of so many Black men from the Democratic Party are something that will be debated far after all the votes are counted.
Read More: Trump seeks to stop ‘all voting,’ but only counting remains
Recent Trump advertisements pointed to Biden’s comment early in the race, when he told Charlamagne Tha God that “if you vote for Trump, you ain’t Black.”
Further, the support of rap artists like Lil Wayne and Lil Pump, as well as the presumed support from Ice Cube and 50 Cent, plus the presidential race of Kanye West, who reportedly garnered at least 50,000 votes nationally, may have all played a part.
Read More: Joe Biden addresses supporters: ‘Keep the faith, be patient’
NAACP President Ben Jealous did an interview with YahooFinance in which he blamed the high rates of Black male Trump voters on chauvinism.
“The reason why you see White men, Brown men, Black men, all voting at higher rates for Trump than the women in each category, frankly, is his appeal to a chauvinism, to machismo, to patriarchy, by whatever name you call it,” Jealous said. “And so what you see is in group after group, he trends higher with men.”
NBC’s exit poll also notes that Black male Trump voters are also skewed widely based on education. Of Black men with a high school diploma or less, 26 percent supported the president. Black men with bachelor’s degrees and advanced degrees voted for Trump at lower levels, 22 and 20 percent respectively.
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