It was an overcast day in our nation’s capital when Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with ALL THE SMOKE, a popular podcast and YouTube show hosted by former NBA All-Stars Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
On ALL THE SMOKE —a media outlet for Black male podcast listeners and what some may consider an unusual media outlet for the Democratic Party infrastructure — Jackson, Barnes and Harris engaged in a frank conversation that can only take place in the intimate confines and comfort exchanged between Black men and Black women, as part of their shared American experience.
Recorded at Number One Observatory Circle, the official residence of the American vice presidency, the September 24th conversation touched on weed legalization, bi-racialism and “the ⅛ rule,” step-parenting, Too Short and Tupac and the inequities that exist for far too many Black Americans, especially Black men.
“We have a system that has failed people if only the exceptional can get out,” said Harris, seated in a light brown loveseat during the ALL THE SMOKE YouTube interview taped in the living room of Number One Observatory Circle. “If you are pointing to the exceptional and the only success story you’ve got, that’s a failed system.”
As she lamented on the achievement gap and the intentional lack of opportunity that has hampered Black male brilliance since America’s inception, Harris channeled the energy of the “wise ole” successful aunt that Black American families have come to know and seen mirrored in Black Hollywood’s depiction of the African-American experience.
Joining the presidential contest in late July, Harris’ appearance on ALL THE SMOKE, just a couple months after entering the presidential contest, speaks to her interest and willingness to engage and center Black men and their experiences. This clearly juxtaposed a Biden-Harris administration and Democratic campaign staff that saw the Black male vote as almost guaranteed, placing Black men’s politics and policy concerns on the back burner.
After the November defeat by President-elect Donald Trump, Harris’ Democratic Party must now devise a new political equation to engage their base and build a coalition that will allow them to regain much of the ground lost to Republicans. African Americans will be core to that coalition. That includes Black men — the highest voting demographic for Democrats besides Black women.
According to exit polls, Harris won 77 percent of Black male vote — a feather in the cap for her and Democrats after a bruising defeat. Black men staying with the Democratic Party was a given, but their lower than expected turn-out has Democratic Party insiders questioning the party’s efforts and long-term neglect of a core constituency.
For many, Harris’ conversation with Barnes and Jackson reflected what was wrong with the Democratic Party’s infrastructure and what was right with Vice President Kamala Harris. Garnering close to 700,000 views on YouTube alone, Harris’ ALL THE SMOKE interview was a candid conversation with Black American men that Mondale Robinson, co-founder of the Black Male Voter Project, believes should have started almost four years ago at the start of the Biden-Harris administration.
Robinson, who identified Harris as an underutilized voice during much of Biden’s presidency, describes the Democratic Party’s relationship with the vast majority of African-American men as non-existent.
“Black men aren’t in the Democratic equation and have not been there for some time,” said Robinson, whose organization focuses on studying Black male voter habits.
For Robinson, the absence of Black men in the equation shows in how the Democratic Party talks about communications with that demographic.
Robinson said that, outside of get-out-the vote efforts, there’s a lack of meaningful outreach to Black men by top-tier party leadership. He also also mentioned what he called the Biden White House’s unwillingness to utilize Harris as part of a bi-directional conversation with Black men.
In citing beleaguered senior Black political advisors, an over-reliance on overpaid consultants, and the silencing of well-skilled, seasoned Black organizers and strategists, Robinson expressed his belief that the Democratic Party latched onto a narrative that Black men were making some sort of mass exodus to the land of “Make America Great Again.”
That nonexistent exodus forced the Harris-Walz campaign to spend almost the entire second week of October focused on rolling out an Opportunity Agenda for Black Men, Black male-centered media interviews and several rallies featuring big names from sports, music, and Hollywood.
Robinson said those efforts backfired.
“Unfortunately for the Democratic Party, their strategy of leaning in on college-educated Black men and thinking that they could reach those brothers who don’t have college degrees and aren’t represented didn’t work,” Robinson said. “A majority of Black men in this country don’t have college degrees.”
While Robinson agreed and supported the Opportunity Agenda for Black Men, he believed the policy proposals should have been released sooner with greater focus on issues affecting Black men at large. He also said that there should’ve been greater emphasis on the overwhelming majority of the voting bloc, which lives outside of the universe touched by the method and tactics that the party and its consultants utilized.
“A majority of Black men in this country that are voters or eligible to be voters are not qualified to get a government contract because they don’t have a small business, ” Robinson said. “So this conversation about small business, crypto and college education was for a tiny population, and that population turned out, and that’s the problem.”
A former 2020 Biden-Harris campaign official agreed.
The official, who requested anonymity, raised questions about those hired by Biden’s campaign and kept by Harris after her takeover this past summer.
“Instead of utilizing voices and experts rooted in the grassroots of the Black community to lead the campaign’s Black agenda, narrative and message, the Democrats made the choice to select folks out-of-touch and distant from the realities facing our community,” the source said.
The source went on to point out the lack of voices that reflected the diverse make-up of America’s Black male diaspora. They said the Black male voices that the party, campaign leadership and consulting structure ended up embracing reflect a long-term problem in ensuring Black men are heard, seen and ultimately participate in the voting process.
“This campaign left many without a seat at the table and as result received less than to be desired in the electoral results,” the source said, citing lower than expected Black male turnout in Milwaukee; Detroit; Philadelphia; and Atlanta.
Since 2016, the Democratic Party has seen a slight drop in Black men voting for its presidential candidates. Over the past three presidential cycles, the party has lost five percentage points among Black male voters nationwide.
Robinson and members of his organization connect that downward trend to some Black men making the choice to sit out the election.
“It is impossible to make Black men believe or trust any candidate in an election year; trust comes through building an intimate relationship between everyday Black men and their issues,” Robinson said. “The lack of that intimate relationship with a majority of Black men has led the party to create a narrative and message that isn’t resonating.”
Paramount to those concerns are jobs and the economy. As of November 2024, African-American male unemployment was six percent, almost double the national rate of 4.2 percent. While usually higher than national unemployment figures, Black male unemployment is a top issue that many sources believe that Democrats and the Biden White House should have prioritized.
Though unemployment dropped under the Biden-Harris administration, the alarming statistics and the lack of access to high-paying jobs for Black men, benign to many, has left Black men in America questioning whether the Democratic Party agenda will ever include their issues.
“It should not take a pollster, consultant or a presidential election for the Democratic Party to prioritize the issues of Black men,” the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign official said. “Black men are a key part of the Democratic Party’s base, and outreach to Black men should be proactive, not reactive. A posture that has forced us to fight back against accusations of pandering.”
During a post-election interview with Pod Save America, David Plouffe, senior advisor for the Harris-Walz campaign, called these concerns “economic headwinds.” Even so, some people, like veteran grassroots organizer Keron Blair, said when it comes to Black men, there could have been a concerted effort to elevate those concerns on the front end.
“For a set of people who were marquis in delivering both the White House and the Senate for Democrats in 2020, Georgia in particular, I think people saying, I don’t know that I woke up and my life was dramatically different because of this administration, “ said Blair, former chief organizing officer for the New Georgia Project. “I think there is value in that question, and I don’t know that there are very, very strong answers.”
This is a question that many Black men in America thought was answered when they served as a crucial part of the voting coalition that delivered the Peach State for Biden and ensured Democratic control of the U.S. Senate and House.
With law enforcement accountability and police reform among Black men’s top issues during the early days of the 2021 Biden White House, Black male voters believed that Biden, a creature of the Senate, would get these reforms passed in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act—a comprehensive approach to holding police accountable and changing the culture of law enforcement.
“We’re going to get a lot more done,” Biden told George Floyd’s family in a 2021 phone call. “We’re going to stay at it until we get it done.”
The act, named after Floyd, a Black man murdered by Minneapolis police, still remains stalled in the U.S. Congress.
In May 2022, President Biden signed a number of executive orders banning police chokeholds and instituting law enforcement reform among federal law enforcement agencies. As Trump prepares to return to the White House, these orders are in jeopardy.
Robinson, who organized in Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina for the past four years, said the Biden administration’s unwillingness to fight for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, along with the Senate filibuster and a busy White House agenda that knocked the bill off the priority list, also knocked Black men and their concerns off the list.
“Black men in America are not used to winning, So the fact that Joe Biden had to win for Black men is a misnomer,” he said. “The president didn’t have to win but had to put up a fight like he promised he would.”
He continued, “Black men are not used to watching you say you swear on your family name that you’re gonna support and fight for us and make us a priority, get in office, and then don’t do that,” he said.
The lack of movement on the legislation and lack of White House focus seems to be endemic to a more significant problem for a party that needed more Black male voters in 2024, and will definitely need elevated turnout in the 2026 midterms.
As of December, the Democrats have three months to go until the party elects a new party chair and officers, and begins the way forward on drafting a map to midterm victory in 2026.
They will need to figure out how to prioritize Black men, their hopes, needs, and political aspirations. Taroue Brooks, an author, activist and lifestyle architect, said he hopes that Black male resilience will serve as a potent reminder, not only for the party’s new leadership, but Black men themselves.
“African American men must hold all political parties accountable to address the issues that matter most to us—economic equity, criminal justice reform, healthcare access, and education,” said Brooks, author of Don’t Audition For Your Life….It’s Already Yours. “We must demand that candidates fight for our interests, not simply court our votes during election season.”
He continued, “Our participation, advocacy, and expectations must be amplified, not overshadowed or diminished by divisive narratives.”
Robinson agreed.
“We have a party that continues to speak about the middle class, yet a majority of our base continues to live in poverty,” he said. “Now is the time for the party to become committed to the critical components of our base and serve them and their need[s], and not the other way around.”
During Harris’ interview with the Black men of ALL THAT SMOKE, she attempted to honor that commitment. Showing genuine concern for George Floyd’s daughter, mental health and economic disparities facing Black men and displaying a unique energy that’s rare among Washington politicians, she showed what was possible if a candidate leans into identity and lived experience.
It is unclear if the Democratic Party’s leaders and consultants got that memo. We’ll have to wait and see.