Report: 'What Black Voters Want'

With midterms on the horizon, reporter Vann Newkirk tried to answer the question that Democrats and Republicans are also asking themselves — what do black voters want?

Vann spoke to members of BlackPac, an independent political organization that polled 1,000 black voters in battleground states.

Here is what Vann wrote about the results:

The poll finds black voters in dire self-reported straits. Over half of those surveyed believe the economy is getting worse, and over 40 percent believe they are falling behind economically. Only one in 10 black voters in the survey sample believe they are getting ahead economically, and that sentiment holds broadly across age and education groups. Over three-quarters of all black voters believe the country is generally heading in the wrong direction.

That directionality is reflected by what black voters see as a trend of increasing racism over the past few years. Eighty-nine percent of black voters believe racism in the country has gotten worse since 2016, the same proportion believes racism is prevalent in America, and over half believe that one of the key shifts in American politics has been a renewed attack on black Americans.

Those feelings of economic inequality and racism directly impact what black voters will do when they reach the polls, wrote Vann.

Vann spoke to host Kerri Miller about his piece and they were joined by BlackPac pollster Cornell Belcher. He is also President of brilliant corners Research & Strategies.

Callers shared their views on the issues black voters are weighing at the polls. Sophia in Minneapolis said she was concerned about gerrymandering.

"We have all these states where Democrats are the majority but they're still overrepresented by Republicans in Congress," she said.

She wanted to know why Democrats aren't coming out against gerrymandering. Belcher said that members of specific caucuses are focusing on the issue, however, "we need more voices of diversity and we need more younger voices at that table" to accurately portray the issues that are important to the Democratic Party.

Hear more from this conversation by using the audio player above.