ATLANTA — Vice President Kamala Harris is shaking up her approach to the Black community and making the economy the focal point of a visit to Georgia on Monday that kicks off a multi-state tour.
Harris heads to the battleground state to make an urgent case to voters who delivered a surprise victory in Georgia for Biden that he’ll ease their everyday costs if he wins reelection. It’s part of a concerted effort by the White House to win back disappointed Americans by putting kitchen table issues at the front of the president’s agenda.
Biden’s support from Black voters is experiencing significant attrition. Much of it coming from Black men.
He trails presumptive GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump in a handful of battleground states, including Georgia. An April survey taken by Morning Consult showed him eight points down in the swing state that he beat Trump in nearly four years ago. Georgia voters say the economy is their top concern in the 2024 presidential election, and just 29% say the economy is on the right track.
Harris’ job approval rating is also upside down with voters. She had a 52% disapproval rating nationally in a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll in March. A bare majority of Black voters, 51%, approved in the same poll.
Her overall support from voters was similar in Georgia in the Morning Consult survey taken in April, when 38% of the state’s voters said they had a favorable view of her and 53% said they did not.
Her visit to Atlanta includes moderated conversation that Harris will use to draw attention to actions the Biden administration has taken to increase Black entrepreneur’s access to capital, lower housing costs and lessen college debt and medical bills.
While in Atlanta on Monday, the vice president will sit down with Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings of the business and finance podcast Earn Your Leisure. She’ll get a boost from Georgia’s both of Georgia’s senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Steven Horsford and Rep. Nikema Williams, who also acts as the state party chair.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden trails Trump in Georgia with Black voters, Harris makes new case