27% of Blacks Say Black Voter Who Chooses Trump Over Biden Is Not Really Black
One-in-four black voters agree with Joe Biden that a black voter who chooses Donald Trump over Biden is not really black.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that only 13% of all Likely U.S. Voters agree that a black voter who opts for Trump, a Republican, instead of Democrat Biden is not really black. Seventy-three percent (73%) disagree, while 14% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
But a closer look shows that 27% of black voters – and 17% of Democrats - agree with Biden’s original statement. Twelve percent (12%) of blacks and 19% of Democrats are undecided.
Biden later apologized for the controversial on-air statement and retracted it. He has stressed his support in the black community in the past, crediting black voters with the win in this year’s South Carolina primary that revitalized his sinking candidacy.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted May 26-27, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Has putative Democratic presidential nominee Biden’s comment impacted the race for the number two slot on his party’s 2020 ticket? Rasmussen Reports will release new numbers about the top vice presidential hopefuls at 10:30 am Eastern tomorrow.
Those under 40 (23%) are far more likely than middle-aged voters (8%) and seniors (5%) to believe a black person who votes for Trump over Biden isn’t really black.
Among voters who say it is Very Important for Biden to choose a woman or person of color as his running mate, 27% agree with Biden’s original statement.
Most voters continue to believe politicians only play the so-called ‘race card’ to win, not to fix minority problems. Still, they see Democrats like Biden as a bigger help to blacks than Republicans.
Forty-nine percent (49%) of Democrats think those who voted for Trump are racist. But then one-in-three Democrats think it’s racism any time a white politician criticizes a politician of color.
In mid-January before the coronavirus devastated the U.S. economy, black unemployment was at its lowest rate in history, and Americans were more optimistic about race relations in this country than they had been in several years.
Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted May 26-27, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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