Democrats think that an anti-Project 2025 message could help them win Black voters — but first, they have to spread the word about it.
Multiple pieces of Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint drafted by former and likely future leaders of a Trump administration, could disproportionately hurt Black Americans, Democrats argue. They’ve highlighted these policies — including plans to ban abortion nationwide, limit contraception access, cut taxes for the wealthy, end Medicare and roll back student debt relief — this week during the Republican National Convention.
“Do they want to tell America that they’re going to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion and take all federal funding away? No,” Rep. Joyce Beatty Beatty, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said during a press conference in Milwaukee on Thursday.
“Because that will make more Democrats be energized,” she continued. “That will make Black America get their attention. So they’re hiding it, and that’s what they do best.”
The Democratic Party has struggled to find a winning message with Black voters, whose support for Biden is decreasing. At least one Republican congressional candidate said Democrats’ Project 2025 messaging to Black Americans is breaking through.
Martell Bivings, who mounted a long shot bid for one of Detroit’s House seats, told NOTUS he fears that being associated with Project 2025 could slow down the incremental gains the GOP has made with Black voters in his district. He posted a video to his campaign social media accounts disavowing the project. (He later declined, however, to elaborate on which parts of the agenda he disagrees with without his spokesperson present.)
“I’m a Republican, and I don’t support Project 2025,” he appealed to voters in the video. “Put me in that room. I’ll play on your behalf. And I’ll tell you I’ll vote no on every single line item that comes up from Project 2025.”
Bivings said he has received numerous messages from voters who were concerned that he was associated with Project 2025 and might not vote for him or for Donald Trump because of it. In one instance, a voter who’d attended two of his campaign events changed their mind after learning about Project 2025, he said.
“One barbershop haircut session, he was for Trump. And the next barbershop haircut experience, he was not for Trump because of Project 2025,” Bivings said.
Democrats’ efforts to warn Black voters about what they see as the perils of Project 2025 are wide-ranging, including radio appearances, investments in billboard campaigns and an on-the-ground presence in Milwaukee during the RNC.
“There’s a simple reason Trump and his MAGA cronies are trying their hardest to lie about their Project 2025 agenda — because it is extreme and dangerous, particularly for Black voters who stand to lose the most,” DNC spokesperson Marcus Robinson said in a statement. “Whether eroding Black women’s reproductive freedoms, ripping away affordable health care, extending tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of working-class Black families, or stripping away critical education funding, one thing is clear — a second Trump term would spell disaster for Black communities.”
Whether the messaging will make a major impact remains to be seen. Multiple Black Republicans told NOTUS they’re seeing little effect.
“I got my first email about Project 2025 about two weeks ago, and I didn’t even peruse it,” Rep. Ken Fontenot, the only Black House Republican in the North Carolina General Assembly, told NOTUS. “But, I’m learning that politically, one thing that’s no longer messaging so well is that these big sweeping changes will occur if we elect Republicans.”
His prediction: “The Project 2025 attack is going to fall flat.”
Some said they felt no need for counter-messaging to Democrats, particularly when Trump had already distanced himself from the project.
“Trump has been very clear that he’s not aligned with that plan,” John Carter, a member of the Georgia Black Republican Council, told NOTUS. “But, very few of the independent and even Democratic voters that I interact with are even aware of the project. They’re not focusing on that.”
—
Tinashe Chingarande and Calen Razor are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.