In the final stretch of the campaign season, both Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s campaigns say they’re taking advantage of one last opportunity to reach young Black voters: homecoming.
By Election Day, nearly 70 historically Black colleges and universities will have had the annual fall celebrations. For presidential campaigns, these gatherings, especially in swing states, offer a fourth-quarter shot at shoring up the key constituency.
“Team Trump sees this as a key moment to engage young Black voters,” Janiyah Thomas, Trump campaign’s Black media director, told NOTUS. “We’re focused on direct outreach — listening to students and showing how President Trump’s policies, like permanent HBCU funding and Opportunity Zones, produced real wins for the Black community.”
On Harris’ schedule: Homecomings at Clark Atlanta University and North Carolina A&T State University. Harris and Tim Walz will conclude the tour with two stops in Georgia, including Morehouse and Spelman Colleges.
“We’ll be fanned out across these HBCUs doing several things all at once,” Trey Baker, a Harris-Walz campaign senior adviser, told NOTUS. “What you’ll see is not only just engagement from staff being at the tailgates and on the campuses during the week, but also sort of overlaying our canvassing efforts and getting people to where they need to be to go and vote.”
Both Black men and women have overwhelmingly supported Democrats in past elections. But even the slightest departure from this in 2024 could be a deciding factor in a race with tight margins. Recent surveys have suggested some gains for the GOP, particularly among young Black men.
A New York Times poll from this month showed some slippage from President Joe Biden’s support in 2020; 70% of Black men said they would vote for Harris in November, down from 85% who said they would vote for Biden. A poll released by the NAACP in September showed over a quarter of younger Black men would support Trump in November.
Michaelah Montgomery, a Clark Atlanta University graduate and conservative Georgia-based activist assisting the Trump campaign with its outreach on Black campuses this year, was bullish about their efforts.
“In other years, a little Republican table would be there but nobody would really stop and visit it,” Montgomery said. “But now because politics is so divisive and sensationalized, when there is a Republican presence on these campuses, there is a lot more attention drawn to them.”
Conservative organizations like Greater Georgia Action, Turning Point USA and its minority grassroots movement, “Blexit,” are tabling at homecoming events in battleground states, including at Clark Atlanta University this weekend, she noted. Their pitch is on the economy.
“There’s an entire class of HBCU students who started when Joe Biden took office and are graduating now,” Montgomery said. “These people can really attest to how the cost of things skyrocketed in these four years. The younger generation is feeling it firsthand.”
Harris, who spent the weekend in Georgia, missed her alma mater Howard University’s 100th homecoming. Even so, Democrats made clear they were controlling the turf. With no Republican or Trump-affiliated table in sight at the Yardfest concert Friday, the Democratic National Committee set up tents in partnership with BET.
Attendees were encouraged to check their voter registration status and get their families to visit the party’s one-stop site for voter hotline questions, and students were told they could either vote in D.C. or their home states.
Democrats’ message is largely that Republicans’ promises are empty.
“I get the opportunity to tell them that HBCUs received more money than they’ve ever received in the history of Congress,” Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, who has been campaigning on behalf of Harris, said. “I get to tell them that Vice President Harris put more money into loan forgiveness and MAGA Republicans from 16 states were against it. They tell their parents that, their grandparents that … because that’s a big hardship.”
“[Donald Trump] has done nothing for Black men, for Black women or anyone else, unless you’re in the top 1%,” Beatty continued. “The things that Trump and Vance have had are not in alignment with what Black folks have. Harris’ plan is something people can resonate with.”
Harris’ policy proposals include a plan to give 1 million fully forgivable loans for Black entrepreneurs of up to $20,000, investments in apprenticeships and mentorship programs for Black men for pathways to employment and tax credits for new small businesses. In her interview with Charlamagne Tha God, Harris also said monetary reparations for Black Americans needs to be studied.
HBCU leaders have, for the most part, steered clear of taking political stances to protect their ability to advocate for federal funding. Still, some have reportedly expressed that they would like more reassurance from the Harris campaign that she would continue to build on Biden’s investment, saying the campaign has been “more personality focused than policy focused.”
While in office in 2019, Trump signed a bill that authorized $85 million in mandatory recurring funds for HBCUs. Under the Biden administration, HBCUs collectively received more than $17 billion in funding, $4 billion of which is meant for financial aid and student benefits.
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford, who has also been on the campaign trail for Harris, said members of the caucus will be on HBCU campuses, at churches and block parties.
“That’s how we reach voters,” Horsford said. “We’re talking to them about the consequences of this election, but more importantly, the power of their vote. We’re the underdogs in this election, and we’re not taking any vote for granted.”
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Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.