Oct. 14 (UPI) — Vice President Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign on Monday announced an agenda focused on Black men, including plans to help entrepreneurs, educators, and digital currency owners and address health conditions.
Campaign co-chair, former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, said, according to The Hill, the agenda would give Black men “the tools to thrive, to buy a home, provide for our families, start a business and build wealth.”
One part of Harris’s plan would give one million forgivable loans up to $20,000 to those who have been traditionally blocked from starting a business. Another part of the plan would create a National Equity Initiative to address diseases that disproportionately affect Black men such as sickle cell disease, diabetes, mental health issues and prostate cancer.
“There needs to be a reprioritizing of speaking to both Black men and Black women in America when it comes to a lot of challenges that they face,” Quentin Fulks, the Harris campaign’s principal deputy campaign manager, told Politico.
Fulks said the campaign is also trying to address a lack on interest and investment in attracting Black men by Democrats for years.
Longtime pollster Cornell Belcher said the Harris campaign should be more concerned about getting Black men out to the polls rather than if they are attracted to Trump.
“I’m not worried about the 14% of Black men who may vote for Donald Trump. That’s fool’s gold,” Belcher said. “That’s missing the forest for the trees. I’m more concerned if African American turnout in Milwaukee, which it has been, runs 10 or more points behind that of white voters. That’s how she loses this race.”