Biden’s Black voter troubles are setting off alarm bells

Prominent Black officials are warning the Biden campaign that the president’s efforts to keep Black voters firmly and enthusiastically in his electoral coalition aren’t working — and that time is running out to get his message across.

The publicly voiced concern from these Black Democrats isn’t that the White House lacks policy achievements — it’s that Black voters aren’t hearing about them. Worse, they fear that the Biden campaign has not fully grasped the severity of the information gap at hand, particularly in key battleground states.

“I’m in a battleground state. I know what has and hasn’t been done. I felt a level of disconnection earlier on the message, on the messengers and on mobilization,” said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. He said he has brought this issue directly to the campaign.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said a balkanized news landscape — where voters are increasingly tuning in to more nontraditional sources of information — has contributed to the problem. “I think that the way that we communicate has changed in such a way that, if you don’t invest earlier, it’s going to be a problem,” she said. “I’m not saying that it’s the last minute, but we are in crunch time.”