Former President Bill Clinton’s one-time pollster Doug Schoen said Tuesday on Fox News that Democrats are doing “everything” to win over rural American voters, despite the party losing key blocs to former President Donald Trump.
Polls and political pundits have warned that Vice President Kamala Harris is losing ground with key Democratic voting blocs, including Hispanic and black voters. On “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” Schoen was asked about Harris’ strategy to “utiliz[e]” former President Bill Clinton after former President Barack Obama spoke at a rally to engage black male voters.
“Well I think it makes sense. Look, the problem the Democrats have is not only turn out in the inner-city with African Americans, particularly African American males, but in rural areas,” Schoen began. “We heard the clip from Tim Walz talking before how rural America has always had America’s back and the Democrats were going to have rural Americans back. Well that’s been a real problem since the presidency of Bill Clinton, which I obviously spent five or six years of my life working to enhance and strengthen.”
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“So Bill Clinton is probably the preeminent Democrat in terms of reaching people in small towns, rural America, and they need that as well as Barack Obama. Neil, in a race this close the Democrats need everything they can. I think the dirty little secret is the polls are trending ever so slightly, but clearly, to Donald Trump,” Schoen said.
Obama appeared on stage during an Oct. 10 rally in Pennsylvania for Harris, pleading with black men in the state and questioning how voters could be undecided on who to vote for come this November, The Washington Post reported. However, before going out to speak to the crowd, the former president was filmed backstage warning fellow supporters that Harris was behind in “turnout” numbers compared to when he was running, particularly in the black community.
While Harris does have a majority of the support from black voters, recent data from the Howard University Initiative on Public Opinion shows that Trump’s support among black men has surged to 16%. An NAACP poll released on Sept. 13 additionally found that more than one-quarter of young black men, among 1,000 registered black voters surveyed, stated they would be supporting Trump over Harris come this November.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore
