Nia-Malika Henderson, Columnist

Biden Needs More Than Barbershops and Churches to Win Black Voters

African Americans are a heavily Democratic voting bloc, but not monolithic. Democrats must adjust to this reality.

February 5, 2024 at 10:00 AM UTC

Nia-Malika Henderson is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former senior political reporter for CNN and the Washington Post, she has covered politics and campaigns for almost two decades.

It’s time for a new message.
Photographer: Grant Baldwin/Bloomberg

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President Joe Biden’s resounding weekend victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary was designed to showcase the primacy and strength of the African-American vote. Black voters delivered in 2020, and they did it again in 2024, was the takeaway the campaign wanted. Black voters matter, in other words.

They got the storyline they wanted. But Biden’s win—with 96% of the vote—is much more complicated (and less resounding) than it seems. Polls still show him lagging former President Donald Trump in key metrics with important voting blocs.Turning that around will take more than victories in largely uncontested races in red states with large Black populations.