Watch: Men of Color, who Supported Biden in 2020, Contemplate Third-Party Voting in 2024 and Criticize Supreme Court in Recent Focus Groups

Men of Color Criticize Supreme Court on Billionaire Donors, Affirmative Action, and Student Loans 

Washington, D.C. | June 30th – In recent focus groups conducted by HIT Strategies, seven of the eight voters who supported President Biden in 2020 said they could vote for a third-party candidate in the upcoming 2024 election, even if it resulted in Donald Trump winning. The findings of this focus group shed light on the potential impact of third-party voting on the next presidential race. 

The focus group consisted of a group identified as “BIPOC, cross-pressured, Biden Men” or male voters of color who have no strong party identification, voted for Biden in 2020, but also have friends or family that supported Trump or have consumed some sort of conservative media in the last two weeks. 

“We saw in 2016 that support for third-party candidates allowed Donald Trump to win the presidency with just 46% of the popular vote,” said Roshni Nedungadi, HIT Strategies’ founding partner. “It is important for Democrats to be vigilant about this prospect yet again and offer a message of persuasion even for voters who supported Biden in 2020.” 

In discussions, the men also criticized the Supreme Court on affirmative action, student loans, and immigrant rights, then tied their billionaire relationships to attacks on “minorities.” These quotes were before recent Supreme Court decisions on these cases.

Quotations from Focus Groups

“I would vote for the third party. If all three of them the third party, Donald Trump and then Biden, I will probably vote for the third party, but Donald Trump will probably win.”   Black Man, Not Strong Democrat   “I’m not going based off the numbers. I’m going based off what I feel like that person is going to bring to the table.”   Black Man, Not Strong Democrat

“The candidates we have right now, I’m literally not happy with a single one. I mean the list is short. Who was there? Biden, DeSantis, Pence. The list is really short so it would have to come down to something really tight.”   Black Man, Leans Democrat    “It all depends on the candidate who can stand up to Trump.”  Asian Man, Not Strong Democrat

“If you take away the affirmative action, then that means you go back to universities and colleges deciding if they want to let somebody in or not, and we’re not at that point where we’re looked upon as equal in this country. So that’s a concern with me.”  Black Man, Leans Democrat on the then-pending SCOTUS decision on affirmative action    “From my point, all [the Supreme Court Cases] deal what seem like minority groups, okay, the biggest chunk of student loans. You have a lot of minorities that have chunks of student aid…”  Black Man, Leans Democrat on then-pending SCOTUS decisions on affirmative action, student loan forgiveness, and immigration, among others    “I agree with what he said about these [Supreme Court Cases] are mostly against minorities, these attacks, yeah, ’cause they mention immigrants and diversity of students going to college. I know for sure for Cal Berkeley, I saw stats that said it was, I think it was like 6% Latino and I think it was like 6% African-American. That’s very low numbers. That’s not encouraging for the next generation that wants to go to college.”  Latino Man, Not Strong Democrat on the then-pending SCOTUS decision on affirmative action

“When people got money, they have connections to people. So if you have certain ideologies and you have enough money, you can just push your agenda I guess, if you wanted to, really. And then I’m sure there’s all these backdoor conversations deals”  Black Man, Leans Democrat on backdoor deals for Supreme Court cases    “To me it’s definitely ideology. It’s definitely. It’s not apolitical anymore. It is extreme views from a particular group.”  Black Man, Leans Democrat on the politicization of the Supreme Court

About HIT Strategies
As Washington’s leading millennial and minority-owned public opinion research company, HIT Strategies helps leaders and organizations translate their target audiences’ values into real-time insights. We understand America’s fastest-growing electorate and consumer groups and specialize in targeting communities under-represented in public opinion data, including Black Americans, Latino Americans, Millennials + Genz, LGBTQ+, Women, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders. For more information, visit hitstrat.com and follow @HITStrat on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.