WASHINGTON (TNND) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday promised to offer 1 million business loans to Black entrepreneurs as she continues to try to connect with Black male voters.
The Harris campaign announced the plan via its website, which notes “Donald Trump is a serious threat to the lives of Black men.” These forgivable loans could reach as high as $20,000 in value, the site reads.
“Vice President Harris is laying out an agenda to give Black men the tools to build wealth and achieve financial freedom, lower costs for themselves and their families, and protect their rights—addressing the issues that Black men across the country have told her are their top concerns,” the campaign wrote.
Other initiatives laid out in the release include launching a “National Health Equity Initiative” specifically targeting Black men. The campaign also touted its support of legalizing marijuana and lowering rent prices.
“Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda doubles down on his mistreatment of Black men and their families,” the campaign wrote of its political opposition. “He will erase four years of financial gains and job growth for Black men and leave their communities worse off for it.”
Reacting to the plan was former Georgia congressional candidate Barrington Martin, who condemned the racial implications of such an offer.
“The Harris campaign wants to give me a forgivable loan because I’m a black man, but I swear I thought it was illegal to give or even deny loans on the basis of race in America?” he asked. “We are a lost nation full of idiotic, petulant children masquerading as adults.”
The proposal is just one of several initiatives Harris has proposed to court those frustrated by the state of the economy. The vice president also suggested in September she would offer $25,000 in federal down payment assistance to all first-time homebuyers.
“I grew up a middle-class kid,” Harris said during a conversation with the National Association of Black Journalists. “It was only by the time I was a teenager that [my mother] could afford to buy her first home.”
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