President Biden pitches Black voters on the economy as 2024 support lags

WASHINGTON ― President Joe Biden, seeking to solidify support among voters of color in his reelected bid, touted progress for Black-owned small businesses during a visit Wednesday to Milwaukee.

In a direct appeal to Democrats' most historically reliable constituency, Biden boasted about Black small-business ownership that is growing at its fastest rate in 30 years, according to federal survey data. The share of Black households owning a business has doubled between 2019 and 2022, he said. And after the lockdowns of the pandemic, Latino-owned small businesses are now growing at its fastest clip in a decade.

"We're just getting started," Biden said in remarks from the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce. "So many of you had the vision and took the risk to open businesses. And you bet on yourself. Together, we're transforming the economy by investing in all of America and all Americans."

Biden, who spoke in front of signs that read "America's small business boom," is trying to convince Americans of an economic rebound while polling shows hardened economic anxieties. Polls also suggest Biden's support among Black and Latino voters in a hypothetical rematch against former President Donald Trump is lagging behind his performance in the 2020 election.

Biden hailed his economic vision, dubbed "Bidenomics," as a break from the "trickle-own economics that was supercharged by my predecessor," referring to Trump, "the guy who thinks we're polluting the blood of America." Biden was seizing on controversial remarks from Trump over the weekend that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country."

In another jab, Biden said minority-owned small businesses under the Trump presidency "found themselves last in line" in accessing emergency relief programs during the pandemic. "On my watch, emergency relief went to minority-owned businesses first, not last."

"Republicans are against so many critical actions that help working- and middle-class people, especially Black Americans," Biden said.

Milwaukee is a critical Democratic stronghold where Biden needs high turnout to again carry Wisconsin, a key battleground state.

Biden highlighted Milwaukee-based Hero Plumbing, a Black-owned business benefiting from federal contracts for the replacement of dangerous lead pipes in Wisconsin funded by the federal infrastructure law approved in 2021 with backing from Biden and congressional Democrats.

A New York Times/Siena College poll this week found Biden leading Trump 82%-13% among likely Black voters (but a narrower 75%-17% among all registered Black voters) in a 2024 rematch and 47%-35% among likely Latino voters (42%-41% among all registered Latino voters). Biden carried Black voters 92%-8% over Trump in the 2020 election and Latino voters 65%-32%, according to exit polls.

A survey from the New York Times/Siena College across the top six battleground states last month found 22% of Black voters in these states backing Trump over Biden.

Despite 50-year-low unemployment, a robust jobs market and a booming stock market, Americans remain concerned about the state of the economy because of high inflation, poll after poll has shown.

More Americans said they trust Trump than Biden to improve the economy by a 47%-36% margin, according to a poll this fall from the Suffolk University Sawyer Business School and USA TODAY.

Among other positive economic trends for Black and Latino Americans, the White House pointed to Black unemployment that reached a record low in April; a nearly $80 billion increase in federal lending for Black communities over the next decade and a $50 billion bump for Latino communities; and a record $70 billion last year in federal contracts for small, women-owned, or minority businesses.

During his remarks, Biden also announced the Grow Milwaukee Coalition is among 22 finalists for federal "Recompete" economic development grant through the Commerce Department designed to improve distressed and long-neglected areas.

The Milwaukee proposal seeks to revitalize the city's 30th Street industrial corridor and reconnect its historically segregated Black community with other economic opportunities, the White House said.

Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly known as Twitter, @joeygarrison.