Why Democrats can't solely count on Black voters in swing state Georgia

Georgia — With the election down to the wire in Georgia, at this barber shop in downtown Atlanta, the staff and customers agree on who will get their vote on November 5.

"If I could vote today I'd vote for Kamala. Because it seems like she has a more rounded view of everything whereas Trump is on one thing. He’s running on one base and we all got to get together. So, if I could vote today I'd vote for her," Mark Harris, a barber, told TRT World.

In the 2020 elections, Black communities in the US voted overwhelmingly for US President Joe Biden. Now that Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black woman, is in the presidential race, her supporters in this swing state are pinning a lot of hopes on her.

"I think that makes a big difference because she's always positive and says things to help the community as a whole so I'd go for her," Tacquon Barno, a Harris supporter who had come for a quick haircut, chipped in.

Further ahead, at a cloth shop, Dedria Medlock, a Democratic supporter, told TRT World: "It does not make a difference whether she's (Harris) Black or white or whatever as long as she's going to do the right thing in this community and help the world."

Georgia has about seven million registered voters and so far more than three million have already cast their ballots.

In 2020, Biden won the state and its 16 electoral college votes with a narrow margin of mere 11,780 ballots.

While Democrats enjoy support from its urban and suburban voters, Republicans hold considerable sway in the state's rural areas and towns, where Trump as of now, leads by over two points against Harris, according to latest polls.

Harris's late entry into the race may have energised the Democratic Party, which was trailing behind the Republicans when Biden was in the fray.

Yet, in Georgia, a state where more than a third of eligible voters are Black, there are signs that Trump is also finding favour among some Black Americans.

The state's early voting figures have had Democrats worried as they have not yet hit the 30 percent target for Black voters. On the record-setting first day of voting, the turnout of Black Georgians was 29 percent. Now, it has fallen to 25 percent.

Trump's Black supporters

At a restaurant in Atlanta, a group of Black voters were asked by TRT World to put their hands up if they will be voting for Harris. No hands were raised.

But when asked if they will vote for Trump, all hands went up.

"Six months after Biden had been in office I had lost so much money," Camilla Moore, a Trump supporter, told TRT World.

Moore said not only did she lose all the gains she had made under Trump, she even went down below baseline soon after Biden took over the presidency in January 2021.

"So, it was the policies for me as an individual you know they say vote for your pocketbook, I'm voting for my pocketbook," she said, reiterating her support for Trump.

Azad Ahmadi, another Trump supporter, said: "Trump's transparent, I know where he stands, just like the rest of the world does, and it works, simple."

For Black voter Lisa Babbage it does not matter if someone says "Trump is a racist."

"Because I'm not voting for him to be someone's best friend. I'm voting for him to do what must be done for me, my children and everyone who has children in this country. It's our future that's at stake," Babbage said.

With the number of eligible Black voters as a share of the electorate having risen considerably since the last election, their power has never been greater, said TRT World's Jon Brain, reporting from Atlanta.

Trump ahead in key states

With just six days before the election and more than 55 million Americans having already made their choices in early voting, both Harris and Trump are trying to electrify core supporters and invite new voters, especially in the seven swing states where both rivals are running neck-and-neck.

An average of polling compiled by the RealClearPolitics website shows Trump and Harris in a virtual dead heat nationally.

But Trump leads in key battleground states that will be pivotal to the race's outcome.

Trump's lead is narrowest in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and North Carolina, where the ex-president is ahead by 0.6 percent, 0.6 percent, 0.5 percent, and 1 percent, respectively.

He also leads Harris by 2.5 percent in Arizona and 2.4 percent in Georgia. Harris is slightly ahead of Trump in Michigan with a 0.5 percent lead.