2024 Election Results: Why Republicans Gained Momentum With Black Voters

When you break down Trump’s support where it mattered, like in battleground states, exit polls show he gained between 2% and 10% of the Black vote.

Now that the 2024 general election is (pretty much) behind us, exit polls show President-elect Donald Trump nearly doubled his support among Black voters.

While Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign targeted Black voters in battleground states in her race for the White House, Harris didn’t do as well as expected even though, if elected, she would have been the first Indian American, the first woman, and the second Black president.

Most Black voters cast their ballots for Harris, which is no surprise. Black voters have predominantly voted for the Democratic party over the last few decades. According to CNN’s exit poll, Harris won 85% of the Black vote, a 2% decrease from 2020. President Joe Biden won 87% of Black voters.

According to the Associated Press’s exit poll, that decrease benefited Trump, who doubled his support from Black voters. In 2020, Trump received 13% of the Black community’s vote and 8% in 2016 — the highest support from Black voters for Republicans since George W. Bush in 2000, Al Jazeera reported.

When you break down Trump’s support where it mattered, like in battleground states, exit polls show he gained between 2% and 10% of the Black vote.

The critical battleground state of Wisconsin saw the largest shift, with Black voters making a 13-percentage point shift towards Trump. North Carolina reportedly saw one of the largest shifts, with a 5-percentage point increase from 2020 to 2024 among Black voters. In Georgia, Michigan (2), Pennsylvania, and Nevada, there was a 1-to-3 percentage point shift.

What caused the shift?

The increasing shift from supporting Democrats to Republicans has come as no surprise. As NPR points out, Black voters, especially younger generations of Black voters, are feeling disconnected from a political party as rising costs for everyday needs have many feeling hopeless.

“[Black voters] know the importance of elections,” Christopher Towler, associate professor at California State University, Sacramento, told the publication. “They understand what it means to have representation. But at the same time, they don’t necessarily feel like they’re being represented by either side of the aisle right now.”

Other factors are likely rooted in shifting ideologies. The Democratic Party’s legacy with the civil rights movement has kept it popular with Black voters, but younger voters reportedly don’t feel the same connection.