A group of Black male voters told ABC News that they didn’t feel good about voting for either President Biden or Donald Trump in November, which several men deemed was like voting for the lesser of two evils.
“I’ll vote, but they’re our only options. So it’s, like, which is – it’s, like, ‘Hey, do you want to burn your hand in the oven or do you want to burn your hand in the toaster?” Rapper Hitman Holla told ABC during a media interview that aired on Sunday.
ABC News’ Byron Pitts spoke to Black men in Georgia and Michigan, both key battleground states, about the issues that are most important to them when it comes time to vote.
“I just got to be convinced and I don’t know what’s going to convince me, to be honest,” rapper John John Da Don told ABC, before noting he was considering voting for Trump. “I feel like it was more change when Trump was in office then Biden, if we got to compare what’s going on.”
“I’m tired of being forced to choose the lesser of the greater evils. I have the right to stand firm in my own beliefs. And what I believe is they’re not good candidates for the people,” Antonio Brooks, a community organizer in Michigan, told ABC.
A USA Today/Suffolk University poll released on Sunday found that support for Biden among Black voters has dropped roughly 20 percentage points since the last election in both Michigan and Pennsylvania. In Michigan, the poll found Trump has 15% of Black voters, compared to Biden at 54% of the support from Black voters.
Trump received just 9% of the Black vote in Michigan in the 2020 election.
The former president gets 11% of the Black vote in Pennsylvania, according to the poll, which is up three points compared to 2020. A majority, 56%, of Black voters still prefer Biden in the state.
Hurley Coleman III, the CEO of Saginaw, Michigan’s Community Action Committee, met with Biden during his visit to the state in May. Coleman said they talked about inflation and his plans for the economy.
“I believe in what President Biden is trying to accomplish, and so as we get closer to November, I will be paying close attention to those – those policies and to what he believes he wants to move this country towards, and I will be standing with him,” he told ABC News.
Another voter, Roy Baldwin, said he was feeling the pinch of inflation as an owner of a barbecue restaurant.
“At this point, I don’t think either one can make a big difference in the economy,” Baldwin said of Trump and Biden. The restaurant owner still plans to vote in November.
“It has a lot to do with, ‘at least I have a choice.’ So if you say that I’m not going to vote, trust me. You already voted. Your vote do count. We fought for it. We died for it, to have a right, and a voice, and silence is not always a voice,” he said.
