U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to Morehouse College graduates at the graduation ceremony held in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. on May 19.
Elizabeth Franz | Reuters
President Joe Biden spoke Sunday about the war in Gaza and discussed investments in black communities in his Morehouse College commencement speech as part of a larger effort to reinvigorate the coalition of voters that helped get him elected in 2020. I did.
“We’re connecting black neighborhoods that were disconnected by old highways and black neighborhoods that were disinvested for decades when no one cared about the communities,” the president said at Morehouse, a historically black men’s college in Atlanta.
The president highlighted several other policy victories to rally his audience, including a student loan relief program and a new $16 billion investment for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Biden’s commencement address at Morehouse comes as recent polls show enthusiasm for the president among black voters, especially young ones, waning.
According to NBC News’ national polling average since April 1, Biden’s approval rating among black voters so far is 7 percentage points lower than during the same period in 2020. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump’s approval rating among black voters increased by 9%. points. However, among black voters, Biden still enjoys majority support at 69% and Trump at 18%.
While Biden still maintains a strong hold among older black voters, his weakness with younger voters may be due in part to the ongoing conflict over the Israel-Hamas war, which has heated up in recent weeks as college campuses have become hotbeds of protests. It was triggered by tension.
“Your voices must be heard, and I promise you that I will listen,” Biden said in his speech. “What is happening in Gaza and Israel is heartbreaking. … This is why I called for an immediate ceasefire.”
The speech, which lasted about 30 minutes, was essentially uninterrupted by protests, but some students and faculty expressed their support for Gaza during the event. Biden’s remarks also received favorable reviews from some students.
“I’m satisfied with what he said,” Sebastian Gordon, a Morehouse graduate, told NBC News after his remarks. “I will continue to monitor his actions to see if they are consistent with that.”
Morehouse’s speech is one prong of a multi-pronged strategy to reach out to a coalition of black voters and regain the momentum that propelled Biden to the White House in 2020, when 87% of black voters supported him, according to NBC News exit poll data.
Biden was scheduled to hold a campaign event with Georgia voters on Saturday before his inauguration speech, meet with small business owners in Detroit on Sunday afternoon, and then deliver remarks to the NAACP. NBC News.
The campaign events come amid an administration-wide effort to demonstrate why Biden has been an effective president for the Black community.
Vice President Kamala Harris spent years connecting with Black voters during Biden’s first term. Most recently, she participated in a weeks-long “Economic Opportunity Tour” highlighting the administration’s attempts to lower costs and improve economic freedom for underserved populations, especially black communities.
That pitch doesn’t come from the top of the ticket.
For example, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, who typically travels abroad to discuss economic and security issues at the G7 level, is touring U.S. battleground states to highlight Biden’s economic agenda.
Adeyemo is scheduled to tour Nevada, a key voting bloc, on Monday with state Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford to promote Biden’s progress on cutting energy and child care costs.
This comes after Harris toured Wisconsin with her Economic Opportunity Tour last Thursday.
“The number of Black small businesses has doubled during the Biden-Harris administration,” Adeyemo said at Thursday’s event. “And when black Americans do well, everyone does well.”
