Nearly Six in 10 Black Voters ‘More Likely’ to Now Vote for Biden After Harris VP Pick: Poll

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Nearly six in 10 Black voters reported that they are “more likely” to vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden after he chose Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) as his running mate earlier this week.

A new Morning Consult poll found that 43 percent of Black voters said they were “much more likely” to vote for Biden in the 2020 election and 15 percent were “somewhat more likely” to do the same. Only six percent of Black voters polled said they were less likely to vote for Biden after his decision.

Overall, 52 percent of registered voters approved of Biden’s decision to pick Harris, compared to 30 percent who disapproved the move. Still, 49 percent of registered voters said Biden’s pick won’t affect if they’ll vote for him in November, per the poll.

While the new numbers show Harris’ ability to pull Black voters, some pundits, like former Bush spokesperson Ari Fleischer, have dismissed the significance of her role.

“I just question whether or not this is going to boost African-American turnout at all. I don’t think it will,” Fleischer claimed on Tuesday, citing no evidence. “She’s just not that historically exciting to African-Americans, she certainly wasn’t during the primary. And that was the one of the biggest reasons Biden picked her in order to win. I don’t see it.”

Before Biden’s pick, polls from BlackPAC and the African-American Research Collective had shown a majority of Black voters would be more excited to vote for Biden if he picked a Black running mate.