While President Biden enjoys strong support from Black voters, Donald Trump has chipped away at that crucial Democratic base: He won 12 percent of Black voters in the 2020 election and did especially well with Black men, winning 19 percent. Some pollsters think Mr. Trump may do even better in November. So for our latest Times Opinion focus group, we wanted to hear from Black men who like Mr. Trump to better understand why — including those who disliked him at first but changed their minds. This focus group was held last week, before the assassination attempt on Mr. Trump.
Some of the participants blamed the Democratic Party for expecting too little of Black Americans or treating them like victims. “I think they have underestimated how much Black men care about their family. We don’t want excuses as much as they think we want excuses,” said Rashad, a 40-year-old graphic designer from Pennsylvania. At the same time, the usual G.O.P. talk about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps was off-putting to some of the men, one of whom noted that many non-Black Americans were born into families that owned homes or enjoyed other privileges.
Mr. Trump’s image as a celebrity businessman held real appeal for the men in our group. While some were turned off by his comments and policies early on, including his Muslim travel ban, they said they came around as they watched him and learned about his record in office. They appreciated what they saw as his economic know-how, low inflation during his term and his law-and-order stances. His support for federal funding for historically Black colleges and universities came up repeatedly as evidence that Mr. Trump wasn’t racist. His recent felony convictions made some of them like him more. But they also said that some of their friends and relatives sharply disagreed with them about Mr. Trump.
We have published focus groups with supporters of Mr. Biden as well. As for these 11 men and Mr. Biden, several participants said they were not really put off by his poor debate performance — but only because they felt that his cognitive condition and age have been common knowledge for some time. For these men, Mr. Trump is not just the more appealing choice but also the sole realistic option, given “how off track the president is mentally,” as one participant said.
What would you say is most off track in America today?
Leadership.
Morality.
The economy. I come from a big family, and I’m the breadwinner. I feel every single penny when I go to the market and when I gas up my car. Things aren’t as cheap as they used to be.
The cult of progressivism.
Morality. We are a nation that has lost its way in terms of morals as it deals with God, as it deals with family — for money in a lot of cases.
And what’s one word to describe how you feel about the election in November?
Curious.
Ambivalent.
Excited.
Apprehensive.
Excited, too.
Exhausted.
Hopeful.
Blah.
Optimistic.
Hopeless.
Illusion.
Tell me why you say “illusion.”
There are so many things going on that the election is a distraction from the reality of the things we need to do. It’s an illusion of hope in a particular person, that things are going to change.
I said I am excited because I think it’s time for change, and I think everybody’s aware of that.
The reason I said “hopeless” was, post-Covid, things seemed like they were going good for a while, but then people began to separate all over again, and then we got the economy going up and down, gas prices.
When you’re deciding how to vote, what’s the most important issue on your mind?
Leadership and competency. Like, if a person ain’t competent to run this country, then it doesn’t matter what the issue is; he’s going to fail at all issues.
Probably the border. It’s affected some people I know personally up in Philadelphia — family.
Tell me more about that.
My cousin is a schoolteacher, and her school, a private school, had to house some — I don’t know if they’re illegals, but I just know they were families that came from the border. She has four kids, and all her kids go to that same school. And none of these people had background checks or anything like that, so it was just a safety concern. I’m down here in Georgia, and I felt hopeless in a way that I couldn’t help her or be there for my little nieces and nephews.
The most important thing on my mind is crime. I live in Las Vegas, and Nevada is one of the most dangerous states in the United States. Crime has jumped in Las Vegas, a lot of homelessness.
Is there an issue that you think the candidates are not focusing on enough?
Education. I’m a school leader. Coming out of Covid, our kids are behind, and nobody’s mentioning it. The only mention we got is that the National Education Association is on strike, and the current guy in the Oval Office — he didn’t want to break the picket lines.
Health care is crucial because our nation overall, especially with the past two leaders, has such a misunderstanding of what health care means and really where the needs lie.
I want to talk about the presidential race and your own political views. I wanted to know if you think you’ve been moving politically in a more conservative direction or in a more liberal direction or if you haven’t really noticed a difference.
I see very progressive groupthink mind-sets, a very heavy emphasis on emotion, like on race relations or climate change. A lot of the time, it’s overcorrection — an acknowledgment of things that happened in the past and an unhealthy fixation with using that as a weapon, in terms of pushing through governmental policies.
I’m 31. I wrote my senior thesis paper on reparations, so I definitely saw myself as liberal-thinking. But then I learned more and more that that’s just kind of an identity more than it is really an ideal kind of........