With just three days to go before the US presidential polls, former vice president Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama have appealed to the crucial Black voters in the country. Both Biden and Obama plan to hold drive-in rallies in Flint and Detroit, predominantly Black cities, where strong turnout will be essential to return this longtime Democratic state to Biden's column after Trump won here in 2016.
Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, too, has delivered a message aimed at Black voters in the Midwest in recent days.
In Warm Springs, Georgia, Biden pledged to “unite the nation”. He quoted Pope Francis on the higher purpose of politics and promised that “as a people and a country, we can overcome a devastating virus... heal a suffering world... restore our soul and save our country”.
“Biden is not going to screw up testing. He’s not going to call scientists idiots. He’s not going to host a super spreader event at the White House, and then take it on a tour all across the country!” said Obama at a drive-in rally in Orlando, Florida on Friday.
Democrats are still sore over memories of Trump’s 2016 win in Michigan and rest of the upper Midwest. This leaves Biden in the position of holding a consistent lead in the national polls and an advantage in most battlegrounds, including Michigan, yet still facing anxiety that it could all slip away.
Overall, the Black voter turnout rate declined for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election, falling to 59.6 per cent in 2016 after reaching a record-high 66.6 per cent in 2012, according to the Pew Research Centre.
Jonathan Kinloch, who leads the 13th Congressional District Democratic Party, which includes parts of Detroit, and expressed confidence that Black voters will turn out for Biden.
“People are motivated. People are energised and ready to right the wrong of 2016,” says Kinloch, who is Black.
Kamala Harris hosted a drive-in rally at Morehouse College, an elite, historically black college in Atlanta. Harris is making history in a year when Black Americans have risen to demand equal protections on a scale not seen since the Civil Rights movement 60 years ago. On Saturday, Harris visited Cleveland, Ohio, where she called on Black voters to overcome the Trump campaign’s efforts to limit voters’ access to the polls. Harris urged voters to honour the legacy of civil rights leaders who fought, and died, for ballot access during the last century.
Biden will close out his campaign on Monday in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born and the one he's visited more than any other in his campaign.
