Will Biden's Morehouse speech sway young Black voters? Opinions among students are divided

Caption

Miles Ross is a Navy veteran and part of Morehouse College's class of 2024.

Credit: Miles Ross

The graduation ceremony at Morehouse College is not just a milestone for its students; it is a celebration of their transformation from "men of Morehouse" to "Morehouse Men." But this year's ceremony is marked by a unique controversy surrounding the choice of commencement speaker.

Morehouse senior Miles Ross, 26, has been looking forward to graduation. A Navy veteran and native of Valdosta, Ga., Ross plans to apply to another prestigious historically Black college/university, Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. This weekend, however, part of the nation's capital will come to him as President Joe Biden is set to deliver the commencement address at Morehouse on Sunday.

The invitation has sparked protests and demands for Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind it. Opinions among students are divided.

"I know students who don't mind having Biden come here and speak; they just want to graduate," Ross said. "And then there's others who know what's going on with Gaza, Congo, Palestine, and they do not agree with Biden's participation in that."

Ross’s lack of enthusiasm for Biden traveling to Atlanta for the speech translates into a lack of enthusiasm for Biden’s reelection bid. 

“Would I be voting for Biden? I don’t think so,” Ross said. “I would probably look at a third party candidate.” 

As for his classmates, he wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to sit this election cycle out. 

“One of the things I've noticed with my generation is a lot of us don't see the point in voting on that level on a presidential  level," he said. "They feel like it's it doesn't mean anything.” 

According to a recent Ipsos/Washington Post poll, fewer Black Americans plan to vote for Biden in the 2024 election. Nearly, 1 in 5 Black voters who turned out for Biden in 2020 say they are less than certain about whether they’ll vote at all this year.

The drop is sharpest among young Black voters. 41% of Black voters ages 18 to 39 plan to vote in this presidential election compared to 61% four years ago. 

Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution studies politics and racial inequities. He says this lack of enthusiasm for Democrats stems from a larger messaging problem.

“[Young Black voters] are now learning about what happened with the 1994 crime bill, they're learning about some of the things that Biden said 30, 40 years ago.," Ray said. "And I think the Democrats have not done a good job of crafting a narrative about the way that Biden has grown as a politician. He's one of these consummate politicians who actually responds to critique. And we've seen that over time where he will craft or even oftentimes apologize for various things that he has been a part of in the past.” 

With less than six months until Election Day, it’s a troubling sign for the Biden campaign. The president won Georgia in 2020 by razor-thin margins. A New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday shows Biden trailing former President Donald Trump with 41% of registered voters in Georgia saying they would chose Biden if the election were held today. 50% say they would chose Trump.

Porsha White, Biden-Harris for President Georgia State Director, said the campaign is confident these young voters will come out in support of Biden in November. 

"From canceling student loan debt for thousands of Georgians, to enacting the most significant climate policies in the history of our country, and investing in their economic mobility by creating good-paying jobs right in the Peach State, President Biden has made huge investments for Georgia's young voters and their futures,” White said in an email. “Come November, we're confident Georgia's young voters will choose President Biden and reject Trump, just like we did last time."

Rashawn Ray expects Sunday’s commencement speech will bring out a side of President Biden that some Americans may already be familiar with and that could help him politically. 

“Biden has always done those things," Ray said. "We go back to after the AME church massacre in South Carolina — Biden was the one who showed up. Biden was the one who stayed afterwards. Why was that? I think partly because it's clear that he empathizes with people.

"I think part of that is just bringing that back up to the forefront to allow younger voters to really resonate and know him in a way that, oftentimes, middle-aged Black voters might know a little bit better.” 

Miles Ross has advice for Biden in his address: Make sure he keeps the 2024 election out of his remarks. 

“This is campaign season, so you see a lot of pandering to the Black community, the Black vote," he said. "I just don't want that at my graduation."