We spoke to young Black voters about Biden and the Democrats

What Do Black Young Blacks Tell Us About Politics? What Do They Remember? What They Think about Political Issues in the New Millenium

Is that message winning people over? Here’s what four young Black voters told us mattered to them and how they were thinking about politics in the year ahead.

Several themes kept coming up: student debt and college affordability; abortion access; and affordable health care. Workers’ rights were a top priority for union members.

Biden’s campaign points to his success in many areas and Vice President Harris held an event at a historically African American college just before the primary to tout her wins in the areas of college debt forgiveness and lowering of the price of Insulin.

Tarmon-Dre Robinson’s family did not discuss politics much when he was growing up. The military’s insurance system and health care are the only political topics he remembers.

Robinson joined the South Carolina National Guard to help pay for his education, and was able to attend a technical college with plans to transfer to a four-year institution.

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“I think people should be able to wake up and say, ‘Hey, I want to be educated,'” he said. It makes some people out of the bucket from ever having that as a possibility for themselves because of the high price tags on education.

Robinson did not vote in 2020 because he tried to stay away from politics as much as possible. He said he doesn’t care for the negativity, and while he planned to vote this year, he hadn’t decided who he was going to support in South Carolina’s primaries.

“This is one of the first times ever in my life that I’m in the middle,” he said, adding that he had not decided whether he would participate in the Democratic or the Republican primary.

He said you should come to the Black community with things that will change the lives of all of us. “I think the problem is saying you’re going to do a thing for us and then nothing changes.”

The vice president spoke the day before South Carolina’s primary at South Carolina State University — the state’s only public HBCU — and detailed her connections to the HBCU community in a way that seemed to resonate with the students.

“She knows stories and challenges we go through, so I will support the vice president in the primary,” she said.

She is a member of the Union of Southern Service Workers and is particularly focused on workers’ rights. She said former Gov. Nikki Haley and current South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster have been speaking “so bad and ill on unions.”

“If you’re running for presidency or something, you should be uplifting the people that you need your vote from, instead of down- talking all of them.” I do not respect that,” she said.

She said she’s happy that she’s running because the campaign is focused on putting the power back in the hands of the working class.

I don’t know if anyone in my circle wants to vote. She felt that it was a mistake for people to want no parts if these are the options.

Our votes matter, no matter how people choose to say it. If we don’t want the person in office, then we ought to vote for someone else.

Brandon Upson, the executive director of the South Carolina Progressive Network, emphasized the importance of connecting with young voters in a way that makes sense to them.

Taleeya Jones was not old enough to participate when voters sent Trump to the White House in 2016. Now, she says she’s enthusiastic to vote for the first time, and she’s supporting Biden.

I was shaking in my boots when Donald Trump was elected. At my age, I couldn’t do anything about it,” Jones said. I am happy that I am able to do something now that I’m older.

Jones, a student at South Carolina State University, described herself as “comfortable” with the Biden administration’s record, particularly on the issue of college affordability.

Biden’s promise to forgive student loans is key for some voting groups, especially young people and Black borrowers. Black women are more likely to be saddled with student debt.

“Now that they’ve paved the way for us to possibly have loan forgiveness, it can help us get through school knowing that whenever we graduate, we don’t have to worry about how we’re going to do this and do that,” she said. “It makes me feel relief.”