Why More Blacks and Latinos Voted for Trump

One of the arguments made to counter the racism evident in Donald Trump’s actions, attitudes and words is that a higher percentage of Blacks and Latinos voted for Trump in 2024.

One person told me recently that a Democratic friend of hers was loudly and actively decrying the Democrats. So why doesn’t she feel “marginalized” and “oppressed”?

It’s true.

Blacks and Latinos voted in (slightly) higher percentages for Trump in in 2024 than in 2020.

In 2020 2% of Blacks and 7% of Latinos voted for Trump.

In 2024 those percentages were 3 and 8 respectively.

(Click here for source.)

On November 8 the Convocation Unscripted podcast broadcast a live episode. The Convocation consists of historians Diana Butler Bass, Jemar Tisby and Kristen Kobes DuMez, plus sociologist Robert P. Jones. This podcast was a post-election reflection and discussion, which included the opportunity to ask questions of the participants.

(Click here for the podcast.)

So I asked them this question: How can I respond to the argument that more Blacks and Latinos voted for Trump this year so his racism can’t be so much of an issue?

I was pleased that Jemar Tisby, who is Black, answered the question. He mentioned several factors that drove the (slightly) higher Black and Latino vote.

One was simply economics: higher prices impact these communities in daily and concrete ways, and they voted for the hope of a better economic outlook.

Tisby also mentioned that Black and Latino men can also be sexist, just as white men can be sexist. A group of men got swept up in the macho, power-driven sexism of DJT, perhaps without even realizing it.

And then Tisby noted that, interestingly enough, 86% of Latinos/Hispanics identify as white. That is because the communities are more and more distanced from their countries and cultures of origin and identify more strongly with the predominantly white American culture. So some in that community were voting for the same reasons as the white community.

Finally, Tisby noted that it remains true that Blacks have voted massively for Democrats over the decades, and, in spite of the slight change in 2024, that remains the case.