Vice President Kamala Harris has seen a surge in support among black female voters, sparked by her work on health care issues including maternal mortality, reproductive rights and gun control.
This enthusiasm could be key in determining Democratic turnout in key battleground states.
Black women have always been among the Democratic base’s most reliable voters and were central to former President Barack Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012. They also strongly supported President Joe Biden in 2020. But this year, support from this key demographic has been fading, potentially contributing to lower turnout in battleground states, after Biden dropped out of the race and before Harris became the Democratic nominee.
Since then, support for the top Democratic candidates has grown among black voters: 64% of black voters supported Biden in July, before he dropped out of the race, according to the Pew Research Center. In August, 77% of black voters supported Harris.
High turnout among black voters, especially in rural areas of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, could help Harris win. Polls have shown that her support has grown since Biden’s withdrawal, especially among black women.
“This is a renaissance,” said Holly Holliday, a Washington, D.C.-area attorney and president of Sisters Lead Sisters Vote, a group that promotes black women’s political leadership. “We’ve partnered with a collective of black women’s organizations, and we’re working together and collectively like we’ve never worked before.”
The issue of gun safety could have particular resonance in Georgia, where both Harris and Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, are vying for the support of black voters. The Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia, left four people dead, nine injured and hospitalized, and dozens more with mental and emotional scars.
According to the Pew Research Center, 82% of black women had a favorable view of Harris in August, up from 67% in May.
And more black women say they plan to vote than ever before: About 70% of black women said they were very or extremely motivated to vote in August, up from 51% in July, according to the Pew Research Center. There are 16 million black women eligible to vote in the U.S., and 67% of them are registered, according to Higher Heights, a political action committee focused on mobilizing and electing black women.
Trump is also courting the support of black women voters, and his campaign released a video last month showcasing black women who have pledged to support him over Harris, citing his economic policies as a key reason.
Still, only 8% of black women voters say Republicans have their interests in mind more than others, according to a poll conducted in May and June by KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
Vice President Harris’ focus on health issues that are especially important to Black women has helped her rally their support, said Kimberly Peeler Allen, co-founder of Higher Heights. In 2021, VP Harris called for a stronger government response to the country’s high maternal mortality rate.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women, a disparity driven in part by differences in access to quality health care, underlying medical conditions, bias and racism.
“The vice president’s focus on black maternal health has garnered a lot of attention and appreciation,” Peeler Allen said. “Like the economy, quality, affordable health care is one of the top reasons black women voters turn out to the polls.”
As a senator, Senator Harris co-sponsored a series of bills aimed at improving maternal and child health care, especially for Black women. The Biden Administration has pushed to expand maternal and child health efforts in rural communities and improve bias training for health care workers, including awarding more than $103 million in grants in 2023 to support and expand access to maternal and child health care.
In 2018, President Trump signed a bill aimed at reducing maternal mortality rates, providing $58 million per year for five years to help states investigate and prevent pregnancy-related deaths.
As vice president, Ms. Harris pushed states to extend postpartum care under Medicaid, the state and federal health program for low-income and disabled people. Mr. Biden signed a bill that temporarily gave states the option to extend federally funded coverage from 60 days to a year, then later signed a law allowing states to make the extended benefits permanent.
When Harris became vice president, only three states — Illinois, New Jersey, and Virginia — offered Medicaid coverage for 12 months after giving birth. The one-year benefit is now in place in at least 46 states and Washington, D.C., according to KFF.
“I’m very excited. I didn’t think it would happen so soon,” said Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), who has led congressional efforts to reduce mortality and morbidity among mothers and pregnant women, especially Black women. “It helps to have everyone working together in the Senate, the House and the White House. I’m optimistic that we’ll have someone at the top who gets it. We’ve got a long way to go.”
Harris has supported measures to prevent gun violence, which has helped her appeal to black women. During a debate with Trump this month, Harris said she owns a gun. But she has pushed for a ban on assault weapons and for background checks before buying a gun, issues that could resonate in Georgia, especially after the Apalachee shooting.
According to a 2024 poll conducted by the Highland Project, a women-led coalition focused on creating generational wealth in the Black community, 84% of Black women support Harris over Trump on gun reform.
Trump’s campaign advisers say he would protect access to guns by appointing federal judges who oppose gun control. He supported gun rights despite two assassination attempts on the campaign trail, and as president in 2017 he rolled back controversial Obama administration restrictions that made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns.
Win With Black Women, a network of black women leaders, hosted a planning meeting with black women on the day Biden dropped out of the race, which was attended by about 44,000 people.
Diminishing enthusiasm for the Democratic candidate among black women even before Harris entered the race may have dampened turnout. And turnout matters: Seven states were won by fewer than 3 percentage points each in the 2020 presidential election.
“44,000 black women tuned in to a conference call on Sunday night? That enthusiasm is a good thing for Democrats,” said Kelly Dittmar, research director at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “If Democrats had chosen someone less popular, a lot of the women who supported Biden might not have turned out to vote.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom producing in-depth journalism on health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF, an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism.
