Vice President Kamala Harris announced a plan on Monday to give Black men more economic opportunities and other chances to thrive as she works to energize a key voting bloc that has Democrats concerned about a lack of enthusiasm.
Harris’ plan includes providing forgivable business loans for Black entrepreneurs, creating more apprenticeships and studying sickle cell and other diseases that disproportionately affect African American men.
Harris already has said she supports legalizing marijuana and her plan calls for working to ensure that Black men have opportunities to participate as a “national cannabis industry takes shape.” She also is calling for better regulating cryptocurrency to protect Black men and others who invest in digital assets.
The vice president’s “opportunity agenda for Black men” is meant to invigorate African American males at a moment when there are fears some may sit out the election rather than vote for Harris or her opponent, Republican former President Donald Trump.
The vice president unveiled the plan as she visited Erie, Pennsylvania, where she stopped by LegendErie Records and Coffee House, a Black-owned small business, for a conversation with Black men from the area.
The business, opened just five weeks ago, is the project of Ishmael and Allana Trainor, a married couple of Erie natives who returned to their hometown after living for years in Arizona.
Later, Harris held a campaign rally in the northwest Pennsylvania city, where she pilloried Trump for suggesting in a weekend Fox News interview that the U.S. military may need to be deployed to quell an “enemy from within” if Election Day is disturbed by agitators.
Her push comes after former President Barack Obama suggested last week that some Black men “aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
The Harris campaign also has been working to increase support among other male voting blocs, including Hispanics, by founding the group “Hombres con Harris,” Spanish for “Men with Harris.” The latest policy rollout is notable because it comes with the stated purpose of motivating Black men to vote mere weeks before Election Day.
