African Americans aligned with GOP messaging on inflation, but will it pay off at the polls?

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Less than a week before the contentious midterm elections, new polling suggests Black voters are more closely aligned with Republican messaging on inflation as candidates from both parties who seek control of Congress have been trying to woo Black voters with promises to either strengthen the economy or protect abortion.

Democrats and Republicans are gambling over which of two issues that most resonates with Black voters — who generally have favored Democratic candidates and policies in the past — will ultimately carry the demographic's support. Republicans are laser focused on high prices and the current economic climate as Democrats continue to place emphasis on the need for abortion and Biden's accomplishments.

Despite the Democratic Party's focus on abortion, a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found that 27% of Black voters are aligned with GOP messaging that the most urgent issue facing America today is inflation, compared to 14% who said the same for abortion.

A September Fox News poll revealed that 22% of Black voters said their number one motivation to take part in the upcoming elections was inflation, the cost of living, and gas prices. That issue was followed by abortion (18%), as well as jobs and the economy (11%).

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A voter fills in his ballot in a booth at the polling place at Boba Guys on Fillmore Street on November 3, 2020, in San Francisco, Calif. (Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Similarly, a Washington Post/ABC News poll from September found that 82% of Black voters believe the economy is the single most important issue or a very important issue in the upcoming midterm elections, while 69% said the same for abortion and climate change.

Some candidates — including Jennifer-Ruth Green, a Black Republican seeking to represent Indiana 1st Congressional District — are looking to break historical norms and shift support from Black voters in next week's election.

In an ad released this week by Green's campaign, several Black voters in Indiana's 1st District said they would be voting her Green over her Democratic opponent, incumbent Rep. Frank Mrvan.

"I didn't grow up voting Republican, but I'm voting for Jennifer-Ruth Green," one voter said in the ad. "We've been voting the same way for years and nothing has changed," another stated.

Of those surveyed in an October Fox News poll, 35% of Black voters said they are more enthusiastic to vote this year than in previous years. The poll also showed that 62% of black voters believe the economy is "getting worse" and that a combined 68% believe current economic conditions in America are "only fair" or "poor."

Among today’s senators and representatives serving in Congress, the Pew Research Center notes that 83% of racial and ethnic minority members are Democrats, while 17% are Republicans. The GOP, however, is looking to lessen that gap in this year's midterm elections.

Speaking to Fox News Digital in a recent interview, Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, who started the DREAM Pac to highlight minority candidates running as Republicans across the country, said Democrats "made promises they didn't plan on keeping" to Black Americans, but that the party actually "made life worse for us as we are at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to education, faith, family, and business ownership."

"All of us want the same thing," Owens said, touting the GOP's recent "Commitment to America" plan that was released in September. "We want an economy that's strong. We want a nation that's safe. We want a government that's accountable, and we want future built on freedom. You put that in front of anybody, particularly the Black community, they will be all in. We always thought in the past that's what the Democrats would give us, we realize Democrats give us the opposite."

Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on voting rights on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 20, 2021. (Bill Clark/Pool via AP)

Owens said President Biden's tenure in the White House has "brought us misery," labeling it as both a downside and an upside "so we can finally have these conversations and get on the same page" about moving forward as Americans.

Echoing Owens, Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney and Fox News contributor, said in a statement that "Black America is waking up because the Democrats use Black Americans for their votes and ignore them until the next election cycle."

"As a former Black Democrat who left the party in 2020 and voted Republican for the first time, the reasons are quite simple," Terrell said. "This is not 1965. The Democratic use of racism against the Republican Party is outdated. You look across the spectrum in this great country and you will see African-Americans flourishing in science, sports entertainment, education and politics."

"There is no systemic racism in America," he added. "Yes, we have individual racism, however, the government is no longer institutionalized racist. The Democratic Party does not recognize that Black Americans support law and order. They want quality schools and they want a secure border. Most importantly, they were opposed to defunding the police. There is a tremendous disconnect between the Democratic Party hierarchy and their connections not only with Black Americans, but people of color. I can assure you black Americans are focusing on putting gas in their cars and trying to fight inflation instead of critical race theory or Green New Deal policies."

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But Democrats should do better as they engage with Black voters, according to Jehmu Greene, a Fox News contributor and former candidate for DNC chair. Black voters largely favor the Democratic Party, but Greene said the party must "step up their engagement efforts" in order to retain the votes of African Americans.

"Unlike many of President Trump's supporters, Black voters do not usually vote against their own economic interest," Greene said. "But in a climate where the professional peddlers of disinformation continue to successfully target Black voters, Democrats will need to drastically step up their engagement efforts far beyond their usual one-dimensional playbook. The Biden Administration appears to have a clear understanding of the challenge at hand with Black voters, given the timing of his full and unconditional pardon of all prior federal offenses for simple possession of marijuana — a move that will greatly benefit the Black and brown communities that have been disproportionately arrested for marijuana possession."

Jehmu Greene, a Fox News contributor and former candidate for DNC chair. (Jehmu Greene)

"Both sides know that Democrats can't win without Black voters," Greene said. "That is why Republicans have been relentless in their efforts to make it harder for Black people to vote by attacking mail-in ballots and early voting and reducing the voting power of Black voters by redrawing congressional maps."

Similarly, Tezlyn Figaro, who formerly served as the 2016 National Racial Justice Director for the Bernie Sanders campaign and now hosts the Straight Shot No Chaser podcast, told Fox that demands to Democrats from Black voters should not be confused with a transfer of political parties.

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"It is important to understand that just because Black voters are demanding more from the Democrat Party it does not indicate that they are going to the Republican Party," Figaro said. "More Black voters are realizing that we must be policy over political party."

Horace Cooper, a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research and chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board, told Fox News Digital in a statement that the "Black vote can’t simply be put in a box" and that it is "no longer wholly owned by Democrats."

"While it's more centrist than the nation at large, increasingly there is a working-class Black vote, a Black male vote (reflecting a growing gender-gap) and a Black evangelical vote. These subsets are increasingly acting and voting the way that their white counterparts do," Cooper said. "When combined with the centrism of Blacks, the monolith of 90% of Blacks voting the same way that we saw in 2008 is over. In fact, every year since then the vote has split more and more. This change is largely a function of the disdain that Blacks have for the progressive agenda."

"As progressives have ramped up their dominance, they’ve pushed some of the 'meat and potato' issues that Blacks care about away from the forefront of political discourse," he added. "Consequently, the Black vote is no longer wholly owned by Democrats. This trend, unless it reverses, will have serious effects throughout the Northeast, the South and even the Midwest."

Horace Cooper, a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research and chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board. ( Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)

As economic and political factors weigh heavily on voters ahead of the elections, both Democrats and Republicans remain driven in their efforts to earn support from Black voters in America.

Janiyah Thomas, the Black Media Affairs manager for the Republican National Committee, told Fox News Digital that "Black America deserves a change in leadership" and touted the significant amount of Black GOP candidates running for office in different corners of America.

"The Republican Party is the party of opportunity and many Black voters know Democrats have taken the Black community for granted," Thomas said. "This year we have more Black Republican candidates running for office than ever before that are willing to advocate for their constituents and promote conservative values of freedom, opportunity, and economic empowerment. Black America deserves a change in leadership, and that starts on November 8th."

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Similarly, Chris Taylor, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told Fox, "House Democrats are committed to earning the support of Black voters, our strongest voting bloc, in every election."

"While we fight to put our communities to work and protect our freedoms, Republicans are fighting against us," Taylor added. "They voted against creating millions of jobs and saving our small businesses, object to our civil rights and voting rights, and now they’re ripping away the personal freedom of women to make decisions about their own bodies."