Healthcare affordability and equity top a list of Black voter concerns, according to the organization Black Voters Matter (BVM), which has introduced a plan to counter ongoing attacks on voting rights and mobilize Black communities ahead of the 2024 elections.
BVM leaders recently announced the launch of the “We Fight Back” campaign and bus tour, which will traverse the nation to educate, mobilize, and empower Black voters.
“We have recently joined the Harris campaign to lead their Black polling,” said Terrance Woodbury, co-founder of HIT Strategies and BVM member.
“We’ve heard a lot about how Black voters are showing up, who Black voters are supporting, and how much support has increased with Donald Trump.”
The other issues of concerns by Black voters include inflation/cost of living, anti-Blackness/racism/discrimination, and crime/violence.
Kristen Powell, principal for Black Futures Lab, said getting Black people to the polls is a path to a Harris victory, and there must be a Black economic agenda.
“We know that rural Black voters and Black voters in the Midwest are typically under-engaged. That will be the key to flipping the balance of power in cities and states,” she said.
“And so we’re talking to 250,000 Black voters ourselves around this agenda and are excited to partner with many of the organizations on this call to make that agenda happen.”
Andrea Haley, CEO of Vote.Org, shared that they’ve registered over 700,000 voters and hit the 1 million mark on people checking their voter registration through the site. The site allows people to look at all 50 states to see the voting rules in those states. And to do things like request absentee forms, find polling locations, and a one-stop shop for everything you need to vote.
“One of the exciting things that we’re seeing, trends that we’re seeing right now, is that more 18-year-olds have registered to vote than at this time in 2020. Most people who are registering right now are younger and more diverse. We’ve registered over 300,000 [of them],” she said.
“We’re overall in the battleground states also seeing huge spikes. When the vice president became the presumptive nominee, we saw over a 700% spike across the nation and in several key states.”
Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of BVM, said Speaker 8: They have programs that invest in local groups that specialize in Black male voter outreach, and not solely for voting purposes.
BVM is launching a national bus tour, affectionately dubbed “the Blackest bus in America.”
The tour will visit communities nationwide to spread awareness and build grassroots support, and it will stop in Texas from Sept. 6-7. This tour is not just a temporary push; it’s an extension of BVM’s year-round commitment to voter education and mobilization.
They are also working with students at HBCUs through its program called “Take the Field,” an initiative that aims to engage, excite, and prepare Black college students for acts of civil disobedience that can have a significant impact on their campus and community.