MILWAUKEE — Former President Donald Trump seems to be gaining some ground among Black voters, a bloc that has historically backed Democrats.
Nationally, Trump won 6% of the Black vote in 2016, compared to about 8% in 2020.
“The biggest problem we have is we have selective amnesia,” David King, who ran for Milwaukee mayor last spring, a nonpartisan position, said. “We forget that they told us four years ago that they were going to do something for us.”
King, a pastor, said he wants his country back, so he votes for the person and not the party.
“The Black community is in an abusive relationship with both parties right now, and I know I’m going to get in trouble [for] saying this, so don’t edit it,” King said.
“I want to get in trouble. But they are in an abusive relationship because it’s like a person [who] abuses a woman. In public, they are so nice to you. They make you think they really love that person and then when they get home, they abuse that person. And then when you go to them and say so-and-so, ‘Johnny is abusing Mary’ you would be like, ‘Not Johnny, the way he loves her in public.’ That’s what both parties [do]. They love us during election time. After the election, here comes the abuse.”
Though King has conservative values and considers himself an independent, he said he already decided he will vote for Trump this fall.
“The worst place to raise your family, for a Black person, Milwaukee comes up in the top 10, so if that is truth, then what did he say that is so bad,” King said of Trump’s recent alleged comment in which he referred to Milwaukee as “horrible.”
Monty Shadd, who lives in Grafton, spent Juneteenth staffing the Republican Party’s booth on MLK Jr. Drive in Milwaukee.
“It kind of reminds me of the time of the emancipation proclamation when slaves were told they were free,” Shadd said. “Some of them said, ‘Nah, that’s all right,’ and it took quite a while for them to embrace freedom. I feel that same way, so if I can convince one out of 100, I think I’ve done a good job.”
Shadd grew up as a Democrat and was once a self-described “no-Trumper” but gave Trump a chance, which he said he wants others within the community to do.
“Trump is not interested in being a dictator,” Shadd added. “He’s not interested in vengeance, [or] retribution. That’s a left narrative they are trying to push. I would say give Trump a chance based on the issues that are on his plate. Listen to his agenda.”
As both political parties advance those agendas, King is reminding the community power is truly with the people.
“If you take a baby elephant and you chain it to a tree as a baby and it tries to free itself, and it can’t free itself when that elephant becomes [fully] grown, you can chain it to that same tree and guess what happens? It ain’t going nowhere because mentally it thinks that 'I’m chained to that tree,'” King said. “The Black voters, mentally, they say, ain’t nothing going to change but we’re going to vote.”