President Joe Biden’s birth state of Pennsylvania has the highest rate of political engagement among black voters, according to a new study.
WalletHub examined black voter turnout and registration during the 2020 and 2022 elections, along with the proportional representation in the House of Representatives of black people. While the national average of black voter turnout is 63%, some 71% of eligible Pennsylvanian black voters turned out in 2020, while a 60% turnout was reported for 2022.
The study also found that black voters in states that leaned Democratic were seemingly more politically engaged than those in red states. After Pennsylvania, Missouri, Maryland, Georgia, and New Jersey rounded out the top five for political engagement among black voters.
“There’s strong evidence that voter turnout is closely related to education level and socio-economic status,” North Carolina State University professor Steven Greene said in response to the study. “African Americans, on average, have less education and income for all sorts of historical reasons in this country. But, once you account for these gaps, black Americans are just as likely, if not more so, to turn out to vote as other Americans.”
Michigan reported the highest voter turnout during the election in 2022. North and South Dakota were ranked last, while Idaho was not included at all due to a lack of data.
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In 2020, black voters made up 13.5% of all eligible voters. According to the Pew Research Center, they are expected to make up 14% in the 2024 election.
Biden has made reaching black voters part of his 2024 campaign efforts, visiting South Carolina twice last month on the campaign trail ahead of the state’s most recent Democratic Primary on Feb. 3. Vice President Kamala Harris also visited South Carolina twice on her own. The Biden-Harris campaign effort saw Biden win the Democratic Primary with 96% of the vote. However, South Carolina’s black voter turnout was only 4%.
