Influential Black women from around the country have met twice in recent weeks with Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, delivering an “earful” about concerns that, without serious changes, Black women who put the president over the top in 2020 won’t turn out for him in 2024.
At one virtual meeting, the women — including elected officials, Democratic Party members, strategists and clergywomen from battleground states — told the Biden campaign it needs to take immediate steps to engage Black women who feel disillusioned by the president’s first term.
A key issue at both gatherings: They say the campaign should add senior-level Black women at the national level, in key states and to the Democratic National Committee. They also asked for more campaign surrogates who represent a broader cross-section of the country’s racial, gender and geographic diversity. If the campaign wants to win over more Black women, they argued, it needs more people in positions of power with “lived experience” to fine-tune strategy and keep the vulnerable coalition that first propelled Biden to the White House intact.