Former President Trump met with students and influential alumni from historically black colleges and universities this week in his latest effort to garner support from black voters.
Among those in attendance at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, were members of conservative black student groups, including Michaela Montgomery, a founder and activist of the Cultural Preservation Movement, who went viral after being photographed with Trump at a Chick-fil-A near Atlanta in April.
Trump’s rally in Florida on Wednesday night came as polls suggest the former president and Republican front-runner is gaining support among Black voters and chipping away at President Biden’s once-vast lead ahead of a 2024 rematch.
Trump campaign sets up base in Democratic-backed Philadelphia in battle for key battleground states
Former President Trump embraces supporter Michaela Montgomery at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta on April 12, 2024. (Associated Press)
The meeting with Trump came the night after two of Trump’s most prominent black allies and surrogates, Republican Reps. Byron Donald of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, spearheaded a Republican outreach effort to black male voters at a cigar bar along Philadelphia’s riverfront. The City of Brotherly Love is a Democratic stronghold in a key general election battleground in Pennsylvania.
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The two senators have kicked off a series of rallies dubbed “Congress, Cognac and Cigars,” and will continue to hold rallies in key battleground states, with tentative stops in Atlanta and Milwaukee.
Republican Rep. Byron Donald of Florida, left, and Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, right, headlined an awareness event for Black voters in Philadelphia on June 4, 2024. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
“We’re here to engage Philadelphia, to engage and to really start building those relationships that are so important to Black communities across this country,” Donald said in an interview with Fox News.
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Donald, who is considered a finalist for President Trump’s vice presidential nominee, acknowledged, “For too long, our party, the Republican Party, has not been serious about building relationships with black voters. Wesley, me, President Trump, that’s what we want to do. This isn’t just about the 2024 election and voter engagement. This is about building relationships around great policy, common sense and leadership that our country needs.”
Donald and Hunt’s new initiative comes months after the Republican National Committee closed community centers it had set up around the country to bolster the party’s minority outreach.
“I don’t work for the Republican National Committee, which is why I’m here and Wesley is here,” Donald said. “There will be a number of efforts going forward during this election cycle that are specifically targeted to Black voters.”
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Hours earlier, in a diverse neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, Hunt attended the opening of the first campaign offices in the battleground state for Trump, the Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania Republican Party.
“We’re venturing into territory that hasn’t been ventured by Republicans in the last 20 to 30 years,” Hunt, a first-term congressman and military veteran, said in an interview on Fox News. “We’re fishing right where the fish are.”
“We know we’re making great strides in the black community, among Hispanic men and women,” Hunt said, pointing to recent polls that have garnered much attention. “Let’s not forget that in 2020, President Trump won 18.7% of the black male vote.”
Hunt then pointed to the November election, arguing that if Trump “gets 25 to 30 percent of the black male vote, the Democrats cannot win.”
Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas will headline a dedication ceremony for Pennsylvania’s first Trump campaign office on June 4, 2024, in Philadelphia. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)
Vince Fennerty, chairman of the Philadelphia Republican Party and a ward president for more than 50 years, told Fox News that geography was important when opening the state’s first office.
“I campaigned in this part of city because it’s ethnically and racially diverse, and I want to start here because I want to build a broad coalition of Americans who support President Trump,” Fenerty said.
Pennsylvania was one of six states that Biden narrowly won to take the White House in 2020. The president’s reelection campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the state party have two dozen coordinated offices and hundreds of staff members.
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Biden, a Pennsylvania native, has held numerous public events and campaign rallies in the state, particularly in Philadelphia, since launching his reelection campaign more than a year ago. Last week, Biden and Vice President Harris campaigned together in Philadelphia for the first time.
The president and vice president rallied supporters at Girard College to launch the “Biden-Harris Black Voters” campaign, which the campaign billed as “a national organizing program to build on the ongoing historic investment in outreach to Black voters, a pillar of the Biden-Harris coalition.”
President Biden and Vice President Harris attend a campaign event at Girard College in Philadelphia on May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Biden used his speech to attack his Republican opponents.
“Donald Trump is pandering and spreading lies and stereotypes to get your vote, to win not for you, but for himself,” Biden said. “Donald Trump, I have a message for you: In our country, in our term, we will not do that.”
Sarafina Chitica, a spokesperson for the Biden reelection campaign, also pointed to Trump’s past derogatory remarks about minorities, saying in a statement to Fox News, “It is no coincidence that Donald Trump, who has discriminated against black tenants throughout his career and criticized the first black president, has no outreach programs for black voters. Trump has clearly demonstrated how little he values black men.”
Chitika emphasized, “President Biden recognizes that every vote must be earned, not sought, and that’s exactly what our campaign will be doing from now through November.”
During his campaign for a second term in the White House, the president has repeatedly emphasized investment in historically black colleges and universities, student loan forgiveness and infrastructure projects.
But Hunt said, “Democrats have been lying to the black community for decades.” [he] They didn’t do anything for us.”
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