 | |
| Type | Black conservatism Trumpism |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Raise political support for Donald Trump |
| Methods | Campaign events, merchandise |
Director | Harrison Floyd |
Black Voices for Trump was the official African American outreach effort of the Trump 2020 Campaign. Their goal was to raise support for former United States president Donald Trump among African Americans. [1] [2] [3] The group was founded in November 2019. [4] [5]
The organization launched with an event at the Georgia World Congress Center featuring Ben Carson and Herman Cain. [6]
At a Black Voices for Trump event in Atlanta, Trump pledged to make Juneteenth a federal holiday and push for economic development. [7]
At another event, Trump told a crowd in Atlanta that the Democrats were fighting harder for people in the country illegally rather than for the black community. [8]
The organization held campaign events in majority Black neighborhoods as well as targeting social media ads to increase turnout for Trump, [9] [10] for example focusing on the importance of Black Republicans in Milwaukee, [11] and focusing on highlighting ways that African Americans have benefited from the Trump economy. [12] After the 2020 elections, exit polls showed that Trump ultimately increased his support among African Americans compared to 2016, and particularly in the Midwest. Apart from economic concerns, a 2023 study found that it was race-related issues that drove more African Americans to side with Trump. [13]
The organization also released merchandise focusing on Black millennials and hosted online “Black Voices for Trump Real Talk” events. [14]
In August 2023, Harrison Floyd, the executive director of Black Voices for Trump, was charged with three felonies as part of the prosecution of Donald Trump in Georgia. [15] The indictment paper alleges Floyd recruited pastor Stephen Lee to organize a meeting with a local election official and Trevian Kutti, a publicist. [16] [17] Floyd turned himself in at the Fulton County, Georgia jail on August 24, 2023. [18] [19] Floyd was detained because Judge Emily Richardson deemed him a flight risk due to a pending misdemeanor charge in Maryland. [20] Floyd's other charge was due to a May 2023 incident alleging that he assaulted an FBI agent in Maryland. [21] [22]
Stacey Yvonne Abrams is an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, serving as minority leader from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, an organization to address voter suppression, in 2018. Her efforts have been widely credited with boosting voter turnout in Georgia, including in the 2020 presidential election, when Joe Biden narrowly won the state, and in Georgia's 2020–21 regularly scheduled and special U.S. Senate elections, which gave Democrats control of the Senate.
Voter suppression in the United States consists of various legal and illegal efforts to prevent eligible citizens from exercising their right to vote. Such voter suppression efforts vary by state, local government, precinct, and election. Voter suppression has historically been used for racial, economic, gender, age and disability discrimination. After the American Civil War, all African-American men were granted voting rights, but poll taxes or language tests were used to limit and suppress the ability to register or cast a ballot. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 improved voting access significantly.
The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Harris defeated the incumbent Republican president, Donald Trump, and vice president, Mike Pence. The election took place against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic and related recession. The election saw the highest voter turnout by percentage since 1900, with each of the two main tickets receiving more than 74 million votes, surpassing Barack Obama's record of 69.5 million votes from 2008. Biden received more than 81 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a U.S. presidential election.
Keisha Lance Bottoms is an American attorney and politician who served as the 60th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, from 2018 to 2022. She was elected mayor in 2017. Before becoming mayor, she was a member of the Atlanta City Council, representing part of Southwest Atlanta. Bottoms did not run for a second term as mayor. President Joe Biden nominated Bottoms as vice chair of civic engagement and voter protection at the DNC for the 2021–2025 term. In June 2022, Bottoms joined the Biden administration as senior advisor and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement where she served until February 2023. Bottoms currently serves as a member of the President's Export Council.
The 2020 United States presidential election in Georgia was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Georgia voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent President Donald Trump of Florida, and running mate Vice President Mike Pence of Indiana against Democratic Party nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware, and his running mate Senator Kamala Harris of California. Georgia has 16 electoral votes in the Electoral College.
The George Floyd protests were a series of police brutality protests that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of international reactions to the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, during an arrest. Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis Police Department officer, knelt on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds as three other officers looked on and prevented passers-by from intervening. Chauvin and the other three officers involved were later arrested. In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. In June 2021, Chauvin was sentenced to 22+1⁄2 years in prison.
A wave of civil unrest in the United States, initially triggered by the murder of George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020, led to protests and riots against systemic racism in the United States, such as in the form of police violence and other forms of violence. Since then, numerous other incidents of police brutality have drawn continued attention and unrest in various parts of the country.
After the 2020 United States presidential election, the campaign for incumbent President Donald Trump and others filed and lost 62 lawsuits contesting election processes, vote counting, and the vote certification process in 9 states and the District of Columbia. Among the judges who dismissed the lawsuits were some appointed by Trump himself.
Sidney Katherine Powell is an American attorney, former federal prosecutor, and conspiracy theorist who attempted to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. In August 2023, she was indicted along with Donald Trump and eighteen others in the prosecution related to the 2020 election in Georgia, arising from the attempt by the former president and his allies to subvert the election outcome in Georgia and other key states lost by Trump. In October 2023, as part of an agreement with Georgia prosecutors, she pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties. She was sentenced to six years of probation and agreed to testify against the other defendants.
The following is a timeline of major events before, during, and after the 2020 United States presidential election, the 59th quadrennial United States presidential election, from November 2020 to January 2021. For prior events, see Timeline of the 2020 United States presidential election (2017–2019) and Timeline of the 2020 United States presidential election.
In direct response to election changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 United States presidential election in Georgia; the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign launched numerous civil lawsuits contesting the election processes of Georgia. All of these were either dismissed or dropped.
Black Voters Matter (BVM) is an American 501(c)(4) voting rights and community empowerment organization. BVM's stated purpose is "to increase power in our communities" by focusing on voter registration, getting out the vote, independent election-related expenditures, and organizational development & training for other grassroots groups. Founded by activists LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright in 2016, BVM played a key role in the election of United States Senator Doug Jones of Alabama in 2017, the 2020–21 United States Senate election in Georgia and the 2020–21 United States Senate special election in Georgia.
The Justice for J6 rally was a right-wing demonstration in Washington, D.C., in support of hundreds of people who were arrested and charged following the January 6 United States Capitol attack. It occurred on September 18, 2021. The event attracted 100–200 activists. It was organized by a former Trump campaign staffer. The event was noted for extensive security preparations and concerns over possible unrest.
Look Ahead America is a conservative political advocacy group and nonprofit formed by former Trump campaign staffer Matt Braynard in August 2017. The group's stated goals are to identify working-class and rural voters, to increase voter registration and mobilization, local community activism, and to advocate for increased transparency in the voting process such as forensic investigations of fraudulent vote claims and equipping poll watchers with cameras.
In February 2021, Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney Fani Willis launched a criminal investigation into alleged efforts by then-president Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the certified 2020 election victory of Democratic candidate Joe Biden and award the state's electoral college votes to Trump. A special grand jury recommended indictments in January 2023, followed by a grand jury that indicted Trump and 18 allies in August 2023. The charges include conspiracy, racketeering and other felonies.
The State of Georgia v. Donald J. Trump, et al. is a pending criminal case against Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, and 18 co-defendants. The prosecution alleges that Trump led a "criminal racketeering enterprise", in which he and all other defendants "knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome" of the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Georgia. All defendants are charged with one count of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, which has a penalty of five to twenty years in prison. The indictment comes in the context of Trump's broader effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election. It is one of four ongoing criminal indictments against Trump.
Harrison William Prescott Floyd III is a military veteran and politician. He was a senior campaign staffer on former President Trump's 2020 re-election campaign and is one of the 19 defendants indicted in 2023 in Fulton County, Georgia.
Stephen Cliffgard Lee is an American chaplain and former law enforcement officer who is allegedly involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election results in Georgia.
Trevian C. Kutti is an American publicist and lobbyist who worked for celebrities including R. Kelly, Kanye West, and Regina King. Starting in 2020, she also worked as a cannabis lobbyist in Illinois. In 2023, she was charged with three felonies and indicted in State of Georgia v. Donald J. Trump, et al. for her alleged attempt to influence the testimony of an election worker following the 2020 United States presidential election in Georgia.
