Tyre Nichols being beaten to death by police officers has renewed calls for policing reform, the shift in focus from a key constituency putting pressure on President Joe Biden before an anticipated reelection campaign announcement.
But between the start of Black History Month, Biden’s meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, and the dim prospect of policing reform, Democrats are downplaying concerns the president will have problems with black voters next year should he seek reelection.
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“There’s a history of frustration,” according to Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright, so it is unlikely Democrats will have to contend with a lack of enthusiasm and lower turnout among black voters in 2024.
To prove his point, Seawright cited the House passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in 2021 and Biden responding to the Senate’s negotiation breakdown by signing a similar executive order instead.
“He got parts of it done. He just has not finished what he started,” Seawright told the Washington Examiner of Biden. “As black folks, we understand that our true power happens at the ballot box, and so we vote because of that.”
Polling broadly bolsters Seawright, though Quinnipiac University polls conducted a year apart capture a small erosion in support for Biden among black respondents, with the number strongly disapproving of the president increasing slightly from 11% last year to 14% last month.
Seawright did admit Democrats have “work to do” to “remind” black men about the party’s record, “educating them on, when it comes to policy decisions and policy ideas,” how Democrats can be distinguished from Republicans.
But “I think it’s malpractice, political malpractice, for any Republican to make the mistake in assuming anything about black men and the direct relationship between their politics,” he said.
At the same time, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) has criticized Biden regarding policing reform, telling CNN on Wednesday that the president has not been a leader on the matter.
“We need him to provide historic leadership in this moment. And when I say ‘historic,’ I’m talking Roosevelt- and Lincoln-type historic leadership on this issue and so many others,” the Congressional Black Caucus member said of former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
“You want to make us safer?” he asked. “Invest in … ending poverty. Invest in housing. Invest in climate. Invest in education. … What we’re doing is adding more police and feeding the prison industrial complex, and that has to stop.”
The Republican National Committee marked the start of Black History Month on Wednesday by underscoring how black communities have become “burdened with higher prices and lower wages when accounting for inflation,” in addition to experiencing higher rates of crime, under Biden.
“Biden’s radical policies have hurt the black community, leading to a loss of support from black voters for Biden — and the Democrat Party — for failing to best represent their interests,” an RNC spokesperson said.
But like Seawright, Rep. Al Green (D-TX), another Congressional Black Caucus member, remained undeterred: “Once the truth is known, it will motivate African American voters to turn out in larger numbers knowing that a small number of Democrats together with recalcitrant Republicans in Congress have prevented crucial lifesaving police reforms from being enacted.”
Biden has reiterated his preference for Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, asserting lawmakers “should do it right now” and that they “should have done it before.”
“As you know, I did it by executive order for the federal side. But I can’t do it otherwise without the help of the rest of the Congress,” he said last week.
Vice President Kamala Harris, too, amplified Biden’s calls during her eulogy at Nichols’s funeral in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday, having accepted an invitation from the 29-year-old’s family after phoning them to offer her condolences.
“We demand that Congress pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Joe Biden will sign it,” she said. “We should not delay, and we will not be denied. It is nonnegotiable.”
One Senate Republican aide sent two words in reaction to an inquiry about negotiations, which were derailed by differences related to qualified immunity: “Nothing new.”
Despite Nichols’s mother and stepfather expected to attend Biden’s State of the Union address next week with Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Steven Horsford (D-NV), the president is not poised to introduce any new policies. Aides are reportedly preparing to launch his reelection bid shortly afterward, advocating South Carolina, where the predominantly black Democratic primary electorate secured him the nomination in 2020, to start the primary calendar.
White House deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton defended Biden’s executive action earlier this week, describing how the order “mandated stricter use of force standards and accountability provisions for federal law enforcement, as well as measures to strengthen accountability at the state and local level.”
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“President Biden is committed to doing everything in his power to adjust — to ensure our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all,” she said on Air Force One.
