A new poll shared with Newsweek reveals that Black voters are expressing doubts about the Democratic Party’s current strategy for opposing Donald Trump.
Newsweek has contacted the Democratic Party for comment via email.
Why It Matters
While Black voters still very much align in favor of the Democrats, the 2024 election saw a sizable shift toward the Republicans among Black Americans, with the Democrats winning about 80 percent of the Black vote, down from 90 percent in 2020, according to the Associated Press.
In total, Trump won 20 percent of the Black vote, compared to 13 percent in 2020 and 8 percent in 2016, the highest level of support by Black voters for any Republican since George W. Bush in 2000.
Gerry Broome/AP
What To Know
A new poll by the 2040 Strategy Group reveals that only 18 percent of Black respondents strongly agreed that the Democrats’ current approach to countering Trump was effective.
The survey of 979 Black Americans was conducted from February 5 to 7 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 percentage point.
Furthermore, the poll suggests that some Black voters are not hopeful that the Democrats are going to be able to win them over in the future, with one in four respondents saying they are skeptical that the Democrats will effectively connect with the Black community.
Some 68 percent of respondents strongly agree that defending Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs from Trump’s attacks should be a central focus for the party moving forward, with two in three saying that the Democrats’ defense of DEI policies against Trump will be important in determining their future vote.
On his first day in office, Trump ordered the removal of officials overseeing DEI efforts across federal agencies as well as the dismantling of federal diversity programs. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management, released in January, directed agency heads to place all DEI staff on paid administrative leave, and to plan for staff reductions by January 31. The memo also mandated the removal of DEI materials and the withdrawal of documents that conflicted with the new directives.
On Saturday, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said on X that the Department of Education had recently terminated 70 DEI-related training grants, totaling $373 million.
Democrats are facing the challenge of defending diversity initiatives targeted by the White House, all while avoiding letting these issues define their party as they attempt to win back voters lost to Trump.
“The party is flailing,” Rashad Robinson, who recently stepped aside after years of leading Color of Change, a progressive civil rights group, told the New York Times. Robinson said Democrats had to show how diversity programs were beneficial in a practical manner.
“If we make the case simply through a moral lens, we will lose,” he said. “Right now, we have to make the business case.”
“The best thing Democrats can do to win the next election is bring back the 10 million people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 that sat it out in 2024,” Alvin Tillery, founder of Alliance for Black Equality and co-founder of 2040 Strategy Group, told Newsweek.
Recent polling shows Trump is currently in a “honeymoon period,” with approval ratings at their highest. This period may be extending even to Black voters. A January 21-23 AtlasIntel poll found that 69 percent of Black voters approve of his job performance, compared to just 50 percent of white voters. The same poll revealed that 72 percent of Black voters view immigration as a key challenge for the U.S.—a central theme of Trump’s campaign.
However, the 2040 Strategy Group’s poll suggests that Trump’s honeymoon period may not be as pronounced among Black voters as other surveys have indicated, with 25 percent of respondents saying they approve or strongly approve of his performance so far.
What People Are Saying
Alvin Tillery, founder of Alliance for Black Equality and co-founder of 2040 Strategy Group, told Newsweek: “A big part of why Democrats lost the election in 2024 was their failure to message directly to Black communities about their needs on the ground. For the last 18 months, our tracking polls have shown that Black voters were as worried about culture war issues—like DEI—as they were about the economy. The 18% figure is just further evidence that the Democratic leadership team still has not figured out how to message in a way that makes Black voters feel like they are fighting FOR them in the culture war.”
Democratic strategist Doug Gordon, co-founder of UpShift Strategies, previously told Newsweek: “In this moment, the actions Democrats take will speak much louder than the actual words they use. The status quo of sternly worded letters and Capitol Hill press conferences is not going to cut it. You can’t bring a knife to a gunfight.”
President Donald Trump, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 23: “My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense—and these are policies that were absolute nonsense—throughout the government and the private sector.”
