Black political firms 'frustrated' Harris campaign isn't investing in minority businesses: 'Pretty insulting'
Black Democratic operatives are reportedly calling out the Harris campaign for avoiding minority-owned political firms in favor of White-owned ones.
NOTUS, a product of the Allbritton Journalism Institute, reported on a call made with Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign and Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP. According to a person familiar with the call, Johnson and others were frustrated by the campaign for being on track to spend less money on Black-owned firms than President Biden did in 2020.
"If Black voters are the base, it should be Black vendors telling the story," the person said. "We still didn’t really have any clear answers on anything."
A Democratic consultant also said, "It’s a little concerning to see that the spending is so [much] less, so far lower. I think it’s approximately one-fourth less than what it was at this point four years ago."
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They added, "We skated by in 2020. And we’re not spending at the levels we were spending at then."
After speaking with more than a dozen vendors and staffers, NOTUS found that the campaign is largely ambivalent about "Black spending" despite record-level funding and the need to reach minority voters.
"It’s not just the media, it’s get-out-the-vote operations and grassroot operations. It’s 20 questions now when it comes to anything for Black spending. And what we’re talking about are a small fraction of what’s being spent for the general market. It’s getting pretty insulting," a Democratic operative said.
Current Harris campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond insisted to NOTUS the issue was a problem in the Democratic Party as a whole rather than the vice president specifically.
"Everybody who said it’s not about money, that’s a lie. It’s all about money," Richmond said. "They’re making noise because they want money and they want a contract, and that’s fair. It’s fine, and they should just say that."
Still, he emphasized the need to reach minority voters.
"I’ll answer it this way: I am trying to win a race, and I believe we have to touch voters. We have to touch Black voters and brown voters. We have to touch them with the people with the expertise to connect with them," Richmond said. "So I have been very dogged on making sure that that’s what we are trying to do."
NOTUS wrote that it is "unclear how much Harris is aware of the frustration," though she has allegedly raised the issue for both her campaign and the Biden campaign. However, it is not being "prioritized."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
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Data from the Howard University Initiative on Public Opinion found an overwhelming majority of Black voters supported Harris over former President Trump 82% to 12%. However, it found Trump’s support doubled to 16% for Black voters under 50, rising to 21% for Black men.