ECNETNews, New York, NY, Thurs. Oct. 17, 2024: As the campaign for US Vice President Kamala Harris intensifies, particularly in courting Black voters, especially Black men, significant concerns have surfaced regarding the campaign’s minimal investment in Black and Caribbean immigrant-owned media and businesses. Despite a fundraising total exceeding $1 billion, reports indicate that the Harris campaign has not adequately supported minority-owned vendors, creating discontent within this critical demographic as the election approaches.
Harris, with a diverse heritage of Indian and Jamaican roots, has emphasized the necessity of prioritizing spending with minority-owned enterprises. However, a recent analysis suggests her campaign has largely favored white-owned vendors. Although she has instructed her team to prioritize Black-owned businesses, sources indicate that this directive has not been rigidly adhered to.
Criticism has been directed at Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks for his budgetary decisions, reportedly dismissing initiatives linked to Black outreach efforts. Insiders have accused Fulks of undervaluing collaboration with Black-owned firms, opting instead to engage white-owned companies that employ Black associates, a strategy that has only escalated frustrations.
In a notable yet limited move, the campaign has engaged in a $1.5 million advertising agreement with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, representing over 200 Black-owned newspapers and media outlets, including those focused on Caribbean immigrant communities.
A major Caribbean-owned newspaper publisher in Florida disclosed a total absence of advertisements from the Harris campaign, with no representation in other Caribbean media outlets. Similarly, the Black immigrant-focused publication has reported no advertising support from the campaign. Notably, no campaign ads were located in various Caribbean publications like the Haitian Times, South Florida Caribbean, and others.
Comparatively, the Biden-Harris campaign invested $70 million in targeted media for Black audiences in 2020. Analysts now anticipate a much-reduced expenditure in the current cycle.
Derrick Johnson, NAACP president, expressed his dissatisfaction during an August discussion with Harris’s campaign. Alongside other Black leaders, he questioned why historically significant minority-owned political firms were being overlooked despite the campaign’s extensive fundraising success.
Participants in the call highlighted that if Black voters are foundational to the campaign’s strategy, it should be Black firms crafting the narrative. However, despite raising these concerns, many participants left without actionable resolutions. Johnson and other leaders are advocating for greater transparency regarding the campaign’s funding distribution.
Support from Black voters, pivotal to Joe Biden’s success in 2020, has decreased in 2024. A Howard University poll indicates Harris’s backing among Black voters has fallen from 92% in 2020 to 82% this year. Worryingly, an NAACP poll reveals that one in four Black men under 50 now favors Donald Trump.
This shift in voter sentiment has prompted calls from Black political operatives for the Harris campaign to invest more significantly in Black-owned media and firms that effectively mobilize this essential voting bloc. With just weeks until the election on Nov. 5th, the potential impact of these calls remains uncertain.
Conversely, Caribbean American voters are demonstrating strong allegiance to Harris, as revealed by recent survey results from a notable Caribbean American publication. The poll indicates that 92.5% of respondents plan to support Harris, while only 7% express intentions to back Donald Trump in the imminent election.
The publication’s surveys, conducted since the 1980 election, aim to assess voting intentions within the Caribbean American community rather than predict the overall electoral outcome. The latest survey targeted Caribbean Americans, particularly those primarily from the Anglophone Caribbean and Haiti.
