Kamala Harris Campaign Criticized For Limited Spending With Black, Caribbean Immigrant Media

News Americas, New York, NY, Thurs. Oct. 17, 2024: As US Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign continues its push to court Black voters, especially Black men, concerns have emerged over the limited spending on Black and Caribbean immigrant-owned media and businesses. Despite raising over $1 billion to date, reports indicate that the Harris campaign has done little to invest in minority-owned vendors, a move that is frustrating this key demographic as the election draws nearer.

Vice President and Democratic candidate for President of the United States Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at Washington Crossing Historic Park in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, United States, on October 16, 2024. (Photo by Nathan Morris/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Harris, whose mother is Indian and father is Jamaican, has repeatedly stressed the importance of prioritizing spending with minority-owned firms. However, a report from NOTUS, a non-profit newsroom, suggests her campaign has disproportionately favored white-owned vendors. While Harris has reportedly directed her team to focus on Black-owned businesses, NOTUS quoted sources as saying this directive has not been consistently followed.

Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks has faced criticism for his handling of the budget, reportedly rejecting proposals tied to Black outreach efforts, NOTUS reported. Some campaign insiders have accused Fulks of downplaying the importance of working with Black-owned firms, the article said. Instead, he has been said to justify using white-owned companies with Black associates on their projects – an approach that has only intensified frustrations.

The campaign has also made a small $1.5 million advertising deal with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, (NNPA), which represents over 200 Black-owned newspapers and media outlets, including those serving Caribbean immigrant communities.

The publisher of a major Florida-based Caribbean owned newspaper told News Americas they have received zero ads from the campaign and have not seen any on any other Caribbean media. News Americas, the Black Immigrant Daily, which serves the Caribbean and Latin black immigrant communities in the US, has also received no ads. No Harris campaign ads were also found in other Caribbean publications online, including the Haitian Times, South Florida Caribbean, Jamaicans.com, Everybody’s Magazine, Caribbean Life, Caribbean Weekly or the Carib News.

In 2020, the Biden-Harris campaign spent some USD 70 million on paid media targeting Black audiences. Consultants predict the Harris campaign will spend significantly less in this cycle.

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, reportedly expressed his frustration during an August call with Harris’s campaign. Johnson, along with other Black leaders, questioned why minority-owned political firms, which have been historically integral to Democratic campaigns, were being sidelined despite the campaign’s record-breaking fundraising.

“If Black voters are the base, it should be Black vendors telling the story,” one participant on the call told NOTUS. Yet, despite efforts to raise the issue, many left the conversation without a clear solution. Johnson and other prominent leaders are now calling for greater transparency around how the campaign allocates its funds.

Support from Black voters, which was key to Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, has softened in 2024. A Howard University poll revealed that Harris’s support among Black voters has dropped from 92% in 2020 to 82% this year. Even more concerning for the campaign is an NAACP poll indicating that one in four Black men under 50 now supports Donald Trump.

This shift in voter sentiment has prompted calls from Black operatives for the Harris campaign to allocate more resources to Black-owned media and firms that understand how to mobilize this crucial voting bloc effectively. But with weeks to go before Nov. 5th, it’s unclear how much of a difference that will make at this point.

Meanwhile, Caribbean American voters are showing strong support for the Caribbean roots Harris, according to the latest survey by EVERYBODY’S, the 47-year-old Caribbean American magazine. In its 12th presidential survey, conducted among subscribers across 36 U.S. states, 92.5% indicated they plan to vote for Harris, while 7% said they would back Donald Trump in the upcoming election.

The magazine’s presidential surveys, which have been held since the 1980 election between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, aim to gauge voting intentions within the Caribbean American community rather than predict the overall winner. For the 2024 election, subscribers were randomly selected and mailed questionnaires in the final week of August.

The survey focused on Caribbean Americans, defined as individuals and their descendants primarily from the Anglophone Caribbean and Haiti.