Democrats sound 'alarm bell' as Kamala Harris lags behind Biden with voter blocs
Two national Democratic groups are warning that some voters in key swing states are not as supportive of Kamala Harris as they were of Joe Biden four years ago.
The Democratic super PAC Priorities USA and the progressive advocacy organization ProgressNow issued a memo this week showing that Black, Latin and younger voters were less supportive of Harris than they had been in 2020, and the organizations showed that just 15 percent of digital communications for Harris had targeted voters of color in those states, reported The Bulwark.
"It was an alarm bell," reported managing editor Sam Stein. "It also may have undersold the problem."
Priorities USA conducted an analysis that found that only 1 percent of 1 percent of all digital ad spending had been specifically directed at Black voters in battleground states over a two-week period this month, while only 2.5 percent spending went toward ads targeting areas with slightly less concentrated Black voters.
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“We are nowhere near where we need to be when it comes to investing in voters of color online," .Danielle Butterfield, executive director of Priorities USA. "We hope this alarm bell encourages donors to invest with organizations that have well laid plans and deep expertise at reaching black voters."
Priorities USA has projected that Harris would need roughly 42 percent of all her voters in Georgia to be Black to win 50 percent of that state's vote, and that number is 26 percent for North Carolina, 13 percent for Michigan, 11 percent for Pennsylvania, 9 percent for Nevada, and 4 percent for both Wisconsin and Arizona.
“Atmospherically, I would say, it is important to remember, this is the shortest ever general election between two candidates,” said Anna Scholl, executive director of ProgressNow. “It’s a 100-day sprint, and vice president Harris is just not as well known as Donald Trump or president Biden and has a short runway to introduce herself to these voters.”