This week, Kamala Harris released her “opportunity agenda for black men,” promising targeted loans, protection of crypto assets, and weed legalization, among other policies. It’s just the latest sign that her campaign knows it is doing historically poorly with men, and not just the white working-class men the Democrats have gotten used to losing. Polls show her lagging Donald Trump nationally by as much as 16 points with men (while outperforming him consistently with women); just 70 percent of black men said they are planning to vote for Harris in a new New York Times/Siena College poll, and when it comes to Hispanic men under 45, Trump is leading Harris 55 to 38.
Many, including former President Barack Obama, have tried to blame Harris’s poor performance with men on misogyny. Obama recently lectured a room full of black men over the lack of enthusiasm of “the brothers” who “just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Nonsense. The reason men of all races are reluctant to support Harris is because her campaign isn’t for them. It’s for women—specifically, college-educated women. And this includes the messaging that’s ostensibly about or focused on men.