Former President Donald Trump is seeing support from Black voters decrease just days before Election Day, a poll published on Sunday shows.
According to the final national NBC News poll of the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, is only earning 9 percent of Black support, lower than the 12 percent he received during the 2020 presidential election when he ran against Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, leads Black voters with 87 percent, NBC News’ poll shows.
The poll, with a sample of 1,001 registered voters, was conducted between October 30 to November 2 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
Sunday’s poll comes after both candidates are seeking to win over Black voters and other key groups as even small shifts in support could prove consequential in a race that looks set to be decided by razor-thin margins in the battleground states.
Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, previously unveiled a plan to give Black men more opportunities amid concerns that some may sit out the election or back Trump. The plan offers assistance for Black entrepreneurs to start businesses and mentorship programs, among other things such as education and launching a National Health Equity Initiative focused on Black men. It comes after former President Barack Obama suggested last month that some Black men “aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Meanwhile, Trump has been making gains among Black voters throughout all three of his presidential elections. Between the 2016 and 2020 election, he increased his share of the Black vote by 4 points, rising from 8 percent to 12 percent.
A New York Times/Siena College poll last month suggested Trump was having some success winning over Black voters. The poll, which surveyed 589 Black voters from September 29 to October 6, found 78 percent of Black voters plan to vote for Harris while 15 percent support Trump.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Milwaukee on November 1. Trump is seeing support from Black voters decrease just days before Election Day, a poll published on Sunday shows.
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP/Getty Images
However, other more recent polls show that gain is decreasing.
A poll conducted last month by Howard University’s Initiative on Public Opinion found 83 percent of Black respondents are planning to vote for Harris while just 8 percent are backing Trump.
It surveyed 981 Black likely voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin between October 2 and 8. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
“I actually think the polls have overestimated Trump’s support among Blacks,” Katherine Tate, a political science professor at Brown University and author of From Protest to Politics: The New Black Voters in American Elections, previously told Newsweek.
Meanwhile, Janiyah Thomas, the Trump campaign’s director of Black media engagement, previously told Newsweek that the campaign was focused on delivering results rather than chasing polls.
“We know this fight isn’t easy, but Team Trump is committed to bringing him back to the White House to continue that progress—lowering costs, creating jobs, and ensuring that Black Americans have the opportunity to thrive again,” Thomas said.
A poll released by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) last month showed 63 percent of Black voters favor Harris over Trump (13 percent). However, the gender disparity is noticeable. While support for Harris among Black women remains strong at 67 percent, it falls to 49 percent among Black men under 50.
Another recent poll conducted by YouGov for CBS News found that Harris has similar support from Black voters as Biden did in 2020. That survey, conducted between October 8 and 11, found that 87 percent of Black likely voters support Harris and 12 percent back Trump.