Is U.S. Gaza Policy Hurting Harris With Black Voters?

In July—before Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee—Christopher Shell, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote a prescient article in Foreign Policy. He noted that Black Americans were becoming increasingly uneasy with the Biden administration’s policy toward Israel. Carnegie survey data showed that some two-thirds of Black Americans supported conditioning aid to Israel and calling for a cease-fire—a stance church leaders had taken as early as January.

Although Harris started to differentiate herself from Biden in a March speech in Selma, Alabama, the following months saw little daylight between her and the president—outraging Arab American Democrats, who weren’t even offered a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“The discontent emanating from the Black community about Gaza is not simple rabble-rousing about the nation’s most recent military entanglement. Rather, it stems from a long tradition of concerns about U.S. power in the world and its noxious effects on the Black community (from overrepresentation of Black people in the armed forces … [to] draining tax dollars for war that could have been better spent on pressing domestic needs),” Shell wrote.

I caught up with him this week, and he added: “Kamala Harris is currently polling better among Black voters compared to President Biden at the time he exited the race in July. However, this polling doesn’t match the high Black voter turnout seen in the 2020 presidential election. While several factors contribute to this dip in support for Harris … it’s hard to ignore the impact of U.S. warmaking under the Biden-Harris administration and the administration’s inconsistent stance on issues like the Israel-Palestine conflict, which likely deflated enthusiasm for Harris among the influential Black voting bloc.”

Read it here: Will Democrats Take Black Voters Seriously on Foreign Policy?