by Kevin Harris and Richard McDaniel
More than one in four Black men voted for Donald Trump in 2024. Democrats can either spend the next four years wondering why, or they can look at what Mayor Randall Woodfin is doing in Birmingham and get to work. Woodfin’s new Black male initiative builds directly on the success of Birmingham Promise, his administration’s scholarship program that helps fund tuition for Birmingham graduates attending college or credential programs. Birmingham Promise was not built on slogans or symbolic gestures. It was built on a clear premise to remove concrete financial barriers, create structured pathways to opportunity, and trust that Black men can rise faster when the system stops pushing them down.
That philosophy is now being expanded through Woodfin’s Black Male initiative to engage one of the most economically marginalized and politically overlooked groups in the country. The initiative centers on workforce training, paid pathways, mentorship, and wraparound supports, recognizing the real constraints that working-class Black men face, including unstable employment, limited access to credentials, and limited professional networks. This is not about DEI as some conservative critics will claim. Woodfin is simply doing what any good Mayor should and investing in the necessary infrastructure to ensure the city is positioned for growth. Critics don’t fear this truth. What they fear is the political power that can be unlocked when Black men move from disengagement to engagement because concrete action is taken to improve their lives.
For decades, African Americans have supported Democratic presidential candidates by overwhelming margins. In 2024, Black voters overall backed Kamala Harris by roughly four to one, with about 78 percent supporting her and 18 percent supporting Donald Trump. But national exit polls and post-election analyses show that this level of support has softened among Black men. In 2024, Trump’s share of the Black vote roughly doubled from 2020 levels, and more than one-quarter of Black men supported him at the polls, a significant shift from prior years.
These trends are striking not because Black men have become a solidly Republican group because they have not. The problem for Democrats is that even small shifts can affect outcomes in key states and congressional districts where every eligible Black vote is needed just to squeak out a victory. And this movement among Black men did not occur in a vacuum. Black men are a part of the dissatisfied working-class who feel their economic grievances go unaddressed by the Democratic Party.
Woodfin’s approach cuts through that dissatisfaction. Programs like Birmingham Promise and the Black male initiative send a clear message that the government can still work for people who punch clocks, raise families, and live paycheck to paycheck. Mayor Woodin understands that when a young Black man sees tuition covered, job training paid for, or a direct pipeline into a career that supports a family, politics stops being abstract. It becomes personal, and with that comes more motivation to show up for the party that is showing up fighting for them.
This is exactly where Democrats should be leaning nationally. Working-class Black men do not want another commission about our struggles or vague promises of future opportunity. Black men want apprenticeships tied to real jobs. Black men want tuition-free access to credentials that lead to wages, not debt. Black men want direct investment in the places they already live, learn, and work. Black men want the politicians we vote for to understand the distinct labor market penalties, higher unemployment volatility, and fewer second chances confronting Black men every day. Black men want elected officials with the courage to do what Mayor Woodfin has done and say plainly that ignoring the realities of Black men does not create fairness but instead entrenches inequality.
Mayor Woodfin’s policies work because they are simple, transparent, outcome-driven, and address directly what Black men need to see from Democrats.
When Democrats invest in working-class Black men, they are not “taking a risk.” The real risk is leaving behind the thousands of disengaged Black men in key battleground states who would vote Democrat because we fear that speaking to Black men directly will alienate some white rural and suburban voters who left the party decades ago and aren’t returning anytime soon. If a program like the Black Male Initiative bothers them, they aren’t voting Democrat. End of story.
The Black male voters Democrats need in states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Michigan aren’t asking for much. They’re asking for what Woodfin already gave Birmingham. The party that figures that out first wins. The one that doesn’t will spend another election night looking for answers that were never that hard to find.
Kevin Harris and Richard McDaniel are veteran Democratic strategists with over 100 political campaigns between them, including the past five presidential elections and several congressional races. They co-host “Maroon Bison Presents: The Southern Comfort Podcast.”