What's up with all those black men who voted for the Republican in the Georgia governor's race?

[DonViejo]

By Vanessa Williams
November 23 at 6:00 AM

-snip-

Black men voted for Kemp at a higher rate than black women, according to exit polling, a data point that drew gasps and rebuke on social media and news commentary.

According to CNN’s exit polling, 11 percent of black men voted for Kemp; the Associated Press’s Vote Cast reported 8 percent.

Those numbers are reminiscent of the double-digit level of support that Donald Trump got among black men in the 2016 presidential election. Trump endorsed Kemp, which helped him win a runoff primary contest in July, and he traveled to Georgia to stump for Kemp two days before the Nov. 6 election.

Kemp’s campaign mirrored Trump’s political themes and rhetoric. During the primary, Kemp promised to protect the Second Amendment by running a campaign ad in which he brandished a shotgun at a teenage boy who wanted to date his daughter. Another ad showed him sitting in a pickup truck that he said he’d use to personally "round up criminal illegals.” He described Abrams, who campaigned on expanding Medicaid, increasing spending on education and protecting the rights of women, immigrants and people of color, as “radical” and “extreme.”

“How can so many black men still align with a party that, now more than ever, is unified by white identity politics?” Renée Graham asked in a Boston Globe column after the election. “This Republican Party is not the party of Lincoln. This is unabashedly the party of white supremacy, migrant family separations, racist fearmongering, and Brett Kavanaugh.”

Ted Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, said black male voters’ behavior in Georgia’s gubernatorial race reflected a return to how they voted before 2008, when Barack Obama made his successful bid to become the first black president of the United States.

Before that election, around 82 percent of black men voted for Democrats, about 10 points lower than black women. “Now that Obama is out, basically black men have gone back to where they were before” in terms of supporting Democrats, Johnson said. “The fact that Abrams got in the high 80s or low 90s means she outperformed Democratic candidates, pre-Obama, among black men.”

-snip-


Vanessa Williams is a reporter on the National desk.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/23/whats-up-with-all-those-black-men-who-voted-republican-georgia-governors-race/

[sharedvalues]

1. I love that *one out of ten* counts as strong black support

The GOP is insane and racist, so 11% - eleven percent!- support gets them excited.
Mountain out of molehill.

[Solomon]

2. Indeed

[DonViejo]

9. You don't think 11% is significant when an additional 53,000 (mostly black votes) were not counted?.

Wow! You never cease to amaze and dumbfound me.

Brian Kemp GOP 1,978,408 ✓
Stacey Abrams Dem 1,923,685
0.9% Other 37,235

10% of Kemp's total = 197,000 + votes. I wonder if Stacey Abrams would be transitioning into the GA Gov's office now if those folks had voted for her instead of Kemp. What do you think?

[sharedvalues]

11. Oh, yes. Voter suppression is incredibly important

I was just pointing out the incredible insanity that for the GOP, the difference between 2 in 10 black voters and 1 in ten black voters is important. GOP is worrying about the difference between tiny support from blacks, and infintesimal support from blacks. And that’s because they’re a party that has courted white racists since Reagan.



On voter suppression: it must be stopped. Abrams had it right in her last speech— Kemp was legally declared the winner but he did not win morally. Kemp cheated to win. And we must stop voter suppression. I certainly agree with you there.

[cwydro]

3. It makes one wonder.

Black men can be just as misogynistic as white men.

[brush]

4. Stop with the gross generalization. 90% of black men did not vote for Kemp...

and it was probably a higher percentage than that who didn't if the repugs are claiming 10% did.

Repugs lie.

[uponit7771]

6. +1 !!!! There's no rational reason to trust anything comings from Georgia's elections

[cwydro]

13. What generalization?

You don’t think that black men can be as misogynistic as other men?

[brush]

19. Did you leave out the word "all" on purpose?

Neither all black men nor all men are misogynistic.

[DonViejo]

10. From the article, which few people seem interested in reading in totality....

Sexism was probably not a major factor in black men supporting Abrams at a lower rate, Johnson said. He cited a paper published earlier this year that looked at how gender stereotypes affected black and white voters’ behavior in the 2016 presidential election.

Johnson said the paper found that “sexism plays more of a role in white voting behavior than black voting behavior.” That research, along with other literature, shows a higher level of sexist attitudes among men across racial groups. Black female voters show the least susceptibility to sexists attitudes, voting for female candidates, particularly black female candidates, at a higher rate than any other group. Johnson said it is noteworthy that sexism appears to have the greatest effect on the electoral choices of white women, who are least likely to support female candidates.

[uponit7771]

5. Raise your hand if you trust anything coming from Georgias elections from now on

This is some crap they would throw out trying to justify Kemps cheating

[Voltaire2]

7. A better question is wtf is up with white men.

[lunasun]

8. + Yes a lot of hand wringing-Why did some black men?. Not-Why did the majority of white men?

Deflective concerns are not new

[erpowers]

17. White Women

What about white women? According to the article, white women were the least likely to vote for a female candidate. Why are white women so unwilling to vote for female candidates?

[delisen]

12. Spoke with older black man in 2016 about his support of Trump.

It was an easygoing conversation. We talked about politics and about art for about 45 minutes.

He lived in rural Georgia and was a folk artist who sold his work to tourists through local shops. He was going to vote for the man Trump over the woman.

Who would he he would have chosen in a race between two women? I don't know. I think its possible he would have not voted, or written in a name, or chosen at random.

In 2016 he voted his gender. He did not know much about Trump, but said he liked his style and agreed with some of the things Trump said. He did not follow him avidly and had nothing negative to say about Clinton.

He got most of his news and opinion from right wing radio and television and local newspaper.

This is just one person but might apply to more men.

My own opinion is that a sense of brotherhood can be strong and tribal, and often overrides "race." However I also think that available news sources play a big role.

This is anecdotal but possibly useful in figuring out how to best reach people in rural areas.

[rgbecker]

16. Bingo: Once again right wing radio and TV and Newspaper comes to the fore.

Fox news and rest have to be countered before any headway is made against the right wing tide of the country.

[SMC22307]

18. I work with a 20-something black man who's pro-Trump.

Why? Mexicans and the wall. He thinks Dirty Don is a tough guy, a fighter. This old-ish white woman was rather stunned, especially since he's second-generation Nigerian. This guy lives and dies by his smartphone. Don't think there's a whole lot of news being paid attention to, but a whole lot of pop culture and video games.

[Glorfindel]

14. It's Georgia. Georgia does NOT like female politicians. Period.

Georgia has never elected a female governor, lieutenant governor, or US Senator, and very, very few US Representatives. One woman was appointed for one day to the US Senate. I have no idea why any of this should be true.

[aikoaiko]

15. In 2016, Abrams sponsored a bill that would confiscate popular firearms and accessories.

These popular firearms and accessories falling under the so-called assault weapons category.

This could explain the gender-based discrepancy.

http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/154275.pdf

178 16-11-117.
179 (a) Notwithstanding Code Sections 16-11-115 and Code Section 16-11-116, any person
180 who possesses any assault weapon or large capacity magazine on July 1, 2016, shall have
181 until October 31, 2016, to accomplish any of the following actions without any prosecution
182 under the law:
183 (1) Modify such assault weapon or large capacity magazine to render it permanently
184 inoperable or such that it is no longer an assault weapon or large capacity magazine; or
185 (2) Surrender such assault weapon or large capacity magazine to the Georgia Bureau of
186 Investigation for destruction pursuant to this part.

I know many here will applaud her stance, but it was a problem for some GA voters.