For the overwhelming majority of Black voters, a political nightmare is becoming a reality: Donald Trump secured enough Electoral College votes to win the 2024 presidential election, according to the Associated Press. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. In the weeks leading up to Election […]
Elections
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
How the Electoral College’s Origins Manifest Today
As we get ready for the season finale of this presidential election cycle, what happens after the polls close Tuesday night is anyone’s guess. But what we know for sure is that the countdown to whether Vice President Kamala Harris or Trump becomes our 47th president all hinges on the Electoral College. It’s that slow […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
At a North Carolina HBCU, Black Students Get Out the Vote
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Standing in a manicured field near the edge of Johnson C. Smith University — an HBCU in Charlotte where his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, and others display some of the symbols associated with their organizations – Kevin Napier explained just how large the election has loomed on campus in recent weeks. In […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Black Voters Prepare for Backlash Ahead of Election Day
Activist Camille Bennett never backs down from a fight, despite her life being in danger. She’s endured racist and violent threats in rural Alabama, a part of a life she’s known since moving there as a teenager. She’s in Florence, her father’s hometown in the northwest part of the state known as The Shoals. In […]
Posted inCourts, Elections, LGBTQ
Why Judicial Elections Matter
It was a moment in a Detroit courtroom that went viral. A judge ordered that a 15-year-old girl be handcuffed and dressed in a prison uniform. Her offense? She fell asleep in his courtroom during a class trip. The incident was caught on the cameras in state District Court Judge Kenneth J. King’s courtroom, the […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy, Rural Issues, Voting
The Powerful, Unsung Role Black Rural Voters Can Play in Our Elections
For years, Garrett Snuggs questioned why the predominantly white town council of Wadesboro, North Carolina, didn’t reflect its population — 69% of which is Black. In the rural town of 5,000, about 52 miles away from Charlotte, he noticed that many Black folks, particularly youth and men, were disengaged from the political process. That changed […]
Posted inElections
The New Georgia Project Helped Turn the State Purple. Now, It’s in Peril.
A Black-led organization that was instrumental in turning the red state of Georgia purple – helping Democrats elect President Joe Biden in 2020 and sweep the state’s runoff elections for Senate the following year – is in turmoil. Four of its executives have resigned or been dismissed in the past six months due to internal […]
Posted inBlack Migration, Elections, Politics & Policy, Voting
Understanding Phoenix’s Complex — and Growing — Black Voter Bloc
PHOENIX — Over the past two decades, Black people disillusioned by the inequalities that have defined life in other states have moved to Arizona in droves, searching for more opportunities. Still, as transplants have found hope in the battleground state, the ability to build political power has struggled to take root. The state has emerged […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy, Voting
Black Election Workers Brace for Security Threats
Black Voters and the Fight for Democracy is a multipart series that explores the stakes of the 2024 election for our communities. This project was produced as part of the Advancing Democracy Fellowship. Deidre Lesesne, a Pittsburgh-based poll worker, remembers the anger that seized her in 2020 when a group of white election observers harassed […]
Posted inEconomy, Elections, Politics & Policy
Harris Covers Wide Range of Topics in NABJ Interview
Weeks after the National Association of Black Journalists caught flak for hosting former President Donald Trump at its annual convention in Chicago, a panel of three NABJ members sat down with his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, in Philadelphia. Harris’ campaign was in talks with NABJ in July to determine whether a virtual or in-person […]
