Latest: Trump recommits to Sept. 10 debate at Thursday's news conference
According to a late-July survey of Jewish voters, done by pollster Richard Baris, Harris has a narrow lead over Trump 53% to 46%. That seven-point gap might look wide to many but it was 68%-30% for Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 presidential election, according to a story by The Algemeiner, a Jewish news website.
According to the story, Orthodox Jews typically favor Trump because of his strong and public defense of Israel. The new poll suggests Trump is gaining support from other Jews, too, who are have been a reliable voting bloc for the Democratic Party going back to the 1960s.
Israel supporter Jan Markell, who leads Olive Tree Ministries, tells AFN the Baris poll is reliable because Jewish voters are watching Harris’ “hostility” towards Israel and Judaism.
“A lot of Jews don't have as much affection for Israel as Christians do,” she say, “but nonetheless, they can put two and two together and see that Harris detests Israel.”
Harris has been openly hostile and critical toward Israel’s war against Hamas, The Algemeiner story points out, and she skipped Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress to speak to a black sorority convention.
In another positive sign for Trump, a recent CBS News/You.gov poll of black voters suggests the Republican nominee is the choice of 18% of them. Like the Jewish vote, black voters are a reliable base for Democrats which is why Harris is the choice of 81% in the poll.
Poll: 18% of black voters choose Trump
Although 81%-18% sounds very lopsided toward the Democrat, the highest any Republican candidate has taken before Trump was 11% by George W. Bush in 2004.
After the 2016 election, exit polls suggested Trump received from as little as 3% to 8% of black votes.
In the 2020 race, Pew Research reported Trump received 8% from black voters.
Radio host Jesse Lee Peterson, of BOND, says 18% would be an Election Day landslide for Trump.
“For the first time I'm hearing black people, especially black men, but black men and women, they're supporting Donald Trump,” he tells AFN.
Telling black voters Republicans are the party of rich uncaring racists, who want to get rid of Social Security and Medicare, has been a longtime campaign strategy for Democrats. Trump’s populist campaign likely threw them off during his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton.
According to Peterson, Democrats have angered black voters with their "lawfare" against Trump in the courts. The black population, aware of injustices done to it, now sees Trump as a victim, too.
"He went through all these trials," Peterson says, "and [black voters] love that because, in their mind, they do a lot of suffering, too."
