A migration of African Americans from cities to the suburbs have Democrats and Republicans strategizing on how to approach this emerging election battleground.
The percentage of Black people living in the suburbs has increased, while those living in cities has decreased this century, Politico reported Friday. Across the country, the number of Black residents living in the suburbs went from 8.8 million to 13.6 million in the first two decades of this century.
The trend looks promising for a Democratic Party that has relied on African Americans as its most loyal voting base. Politico reported that in the midterm elections, Democrats dominated suburban areas that saw a large increase in Black residents over the past two decades.
"When you think about the suburbs becoming more diverse," said Tom Bonier, CEO of the Democrat data firm TargetSmart, told Politico, "it just creates a way more efficient distribution of Democratic votes, where they're not as packed into the cities."
But Republicans also see an opportunity to connect with Black suburban voters through their messaging about the economy, crime, and education. Republicans have been doing a better job courting the Black vote since the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016.
In this year's midterm elections, although more than 8 in 10 Black voters supported Democrats for Congress, The Washington Post reported the party's level of support fell between 4 and 7 percentage points compared with 2018, according to network exit polling and the AP VoteCast poll, respectively.
Jim McLaughlin, a veteran Republican pollster, told Politico that like other suburbanites, Black voters there "don't want their taxes to go up, they want good schools, they want their families to be safe."
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