NORFOLK, Va. — What will the impact be in this year's presidential election, now that Vice-President Kamala Harris is at the top of the democratic ticket? Some people I spoke with are saying, don't make assumptions and don't count out the GOP.
I was curious what voters might be saying, so I went to Granby Street in downtown Norfolk and asked a random sampling of African-American voters who they were voting for in the presidential election.
One of the voters was Purnell Willard who said with a laugh, when I asked if he had made a decision, "Of course! Kamala Harris!" Faith Crisp had a one-word response, "Kamala." Another woman, who didn't share her full name said, "It brings a new energy and perspective to what we're moving into as a country."
I asked Norfolk State University political analyst Dr. Eric Claville, about the potential impact on the Black vote following the announcement by Joe Biden to drop out, resulting in Harris being at the top. "Kurt the African-American vote is going to be tremendous throughout this entire process. We're seeing something very similar to what happened in 2008", referencing the election of Barack Obama. "Absolutely, we're seeing that type of excitement!"
Obama, the nation's first African-American president---in his first election, picked up 95 percent of the Black vote. Will Kamala Harris be able to tap into that energy? Dr. Claville believes so, "When you talk about the Black community, she also represents part of its core: a graduate of a historically Black college university— HBCU, Howard University and also a part of one of our Black sororities, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated."
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But does that all translate into actual votes, I asked Dr. Claville, "Well again, the energy behind it, as a matter of fact, the day after the announcement there was a call held for Black women in support of Harris and also the next day, Black men in support of Harris. These two calls saw a record number of individuals logging on and a record number of grassroots dollars into the millions of dollars."
Republicans are taking notice, "But it's going to change the focus, the approach by the Trump team—it's going to have to because things have shifted", says Bill Curtis who heads up Black Voices for Virginia Coalition--the outreach arm to the African-American community for the state GOP.
He adds though, "We are no longer monolithic. We've been viewed that--well we're not! We're not a monolithic vote and we are no different than any other community in America, we can make choices."
And Republicans see small but steady progress with Black voters. According to the New York Times exit polls of Black voters in past presidential elections--- the GOP went from four percent with Black voters in the Obama-John McCain match-up, to Donald Trump getting eight percent in 2016 when he faced Hillary Clinton---to Trump pulling in 12 percent of the African-American vote against Joe Biden.
And when you break it down by gender, Trump does better with Black men than Black women. Curtis shares his thoughts on the gender gap with Black voters for Trump, "He believes what he believes and he's just going to share that and I think that young Black men respect that—they respect that former president Trump says what he thinks."
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But democrats believe Harris at the top of the ticket is a game-changer for the African-American vote, "Major, major impact. We have young people that are registering to vote in record numbers, says Gaylene Kanoyton, the Political Action Chair for Virginia
She adds, "Some of the registrars are seeing the spike in it. It's just a little bit of everywhere. I'm talking to different organizations--we have everyone doing voter registration--they're seeing it in their voter registration drives."
What's behind some of the energy? Let's go back to Purnell, who gave an enthusiastic response in saying he would vote for Harris. "Well I feel better now that someone else besides Joe Biden is going to be nominated," I asked why. "Because age-wise I think Biden and Trump are pretty old."
And this from another African-American voter we spoke with, Ayanna Smalls, who didn't want to reveal who she was voting for, and would only say, "I was already going to vote; I mean I have more incentive to vote now."
Dr. Claville points this out though, "Now Kurt keep in mind this race is going to be about getting your base to the poll. So even if you do get the majority of the undecided vote, the candidate that gets the highest percentage of their voters, their base voters, their committed voters to the polls—- is going to win this election."
I did speak with a couple of local election registrars and they say yes, there's been a spike in voter registration, but they say that's not uncommon in a presidential election year. But one registrar did tell me, she's seen an increase in community organizations seeking training on how to register voters and an increase in folks wanting information on voting by mail. Early voting starts next month—-September 20th.
