Black Lives Matter

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Dec. 17, 2020 – Amidst growing national attention and the chance to elect Rev. Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate, Black voters in Georgia are highly motivated to vote in the Jan. 5 run-off elections, according to a poll released today by the Black Lives Matter Political Action Committee and HIT Strategies.

The survey found 90 percent of respondents are strongly interested in who wins the two U.S. Senate elections, and 84 percent plan to cast their votes before Election Day. The biggest factor behind their enthusiasm, according to a third of survey participants, is electing Warnock as the first Black U.S. Senator from Georgia. 

“Black Georgians care greatly about this election and fully understand what’s on the line in terms of protecting and improving Black lives,” said Angela Angel, the Senior Advisor at Black Lives Matter PAC and Director of Black Power at Bowers Consulting Firm. “If we hope to begin addressing this country’s racism and healthcare and criminal legal systems, we need Democrats to control the U.S. Senate and that’s why Black voter turnout is so critical.”

Other key findings of the poll include:

• The close association between Warnock and his Democratic counterpart, Jon Ossoff, has resulted in near equal name ID (95 percent), favorability (83 percent) and support (90 percent) among Black voters.
• Black support for the Republican U.S. Senate candidates has decreased significantly since the Nov. 3 election, with Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler each receiving 2 percent support from all Black voters, compared to 11 percent and 6 percent, respectively, in the Nov. 3 general election.
• Uncertainty about the voting process is broad enough to impact the outcome of the election – over ⅕ of Black voters believe they will automatically get an absentee or mail-in ballot if they voted by the same mode in the Nov. 3 general election.
  

“As a result of the Trump-bump amongst Black male voters that HIT Strategies warned against in the general election, Perdue got close to 74,000 more votes from Black men in 2020 than he did in 2014,” said Terrance Woodbury, Democratic Pollster and a Partner at HIT Strategies, who conducted the poll. “Perdue’s drop-off in Black men’s support revealed in this poll – from 17 percent in the Nov. 3 election to just 2 percent now – could determine the outcome of the run-off, assuming all other factors remain the same. That’s why it is so important for organizations like Black Lives Matter to continue raising the stakes of this election and demonstrating to Black voters why Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are the clear choice to make change on the issues that matter to them.”

The survey of 500 Black, registered voters in Georgia was conducted via text-to-web and phone between Nov. 24 and Dec. 8. The margin of error is +/-4.4 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent.