Contact: Louise Filkins
Phone: 202-419-1820
WASHINGTON, DC — The Independent Women’s Forum today said that the results of a new poll showing that black support for President George W. Bush has doubled since 2000 are not surprising given that many African Americans seem to hold more conservative positions than the general population on various social issues. The poll, released by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, demonstrates that African American support for Bush has doubled from 9 percent to 18 percent since the 2000 election.
“The attitudes of African Americans reflected in this poll unequivocally demonstrate that on election-year issues like gay marriage and civil unions, African Americans are not bedazzled by Presidential candidate John Kerry,” said Michelle D. Bernard, senior fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum. “The 2004 election will be a dead-heat sprint to the finish line and the black vote might very well be the voting bloc that tips the scales in favor of one candidate over another.”
“In this election cycle, black voters have failed to embrace Senator Kerry the way they did former President Clinton or Vice President Al Gore,” added Bernard. “This poll is not good news for John Kerry or the Democratic Party. That being said, the introduction of competition among the parties for the black vote is good for black America and for the nation.”
The Joint Center poll was conducted between September 15 and October 10, 2004, among 1,642 respondents ages 18 years or older and covered a broad range of topics including politics and the 2004 election, education, gay marriage, healthcare, and black partisanship. The survey included two samples — a general population sample of 850 adults and one of 850 blacks. There were 58 black respondents whose answers were part of both samples.