BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Undecided voters can sway the election if they vote. With the first Presidential Debate on Tuesday night, here are the details on the possible power players in the 2020 electorate.
23ABC Political Contributor, Dr. Jeanine Kraybill believes that the fate of the presidential election rests on four crucial subgroups: Black, Latino, young voters, and senior citizens.
"Believes Joe Biden may have the Black, Latino and young vote, but he still has strides to make tonight if he wants undecided voters from those groups to turn out," said Dr. Jeanine Kraybill.
“That group was more excited when it came to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. So, in terms of them really getting excited for Joe Biden? That’s challenging,” said Kraybill.
Millennials and Gen-Z, bolster 30% of the electorate combined, making it important for Biden or Trump to make a good first impression at the debates tonight.
“Millennials have learned from the 2016 election that although they may have wanted Bernie Sanders,
or whoever their candidate was, that they can’t just stay home and be upset. They learned that we have two choices ultimately. We have Joe Biden and Donald Trump. And we need to get Joe Biden elected, otherwise, this country is going to be in shambles,” Said Chris Romo, of Kern County Democrats.
Dr. Kraybill says Biden is polling better than Trump amongst Latino and Black voters, with a less wide margin than Clinton in the 2016 election.
One way Kraybill says that Biden could win all three subgroup votes is through moderator Chris Wallace’s proposed debate topic of race and violence in America.
“That can be a point where Joe Biden is very strategic, and really addresses incarceration rates in regard to people of color are disproportionately more so than whites. Or when it comes to the issues of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor," said Kraybill.
On the flip side, Kraybill says trump is well the 70 and 80% left leanings of Latino and Black voters, respectively. But he may try to chip away at the Black vote with another topic slated for tonight: the economy.
Twenty-seven-year-old Kevin Reed, who volunteers with the kern county republican party, agrees.
“I mean, prior to COVID-19, Blacks and Latinos had the lowest unemployment rate in the history of this nation. And Blacks and Latinos certainly recognize that Trump’s policies are largely to do with that,” said Reed.
Dr. Kraybill concludes with Trump garnering favor with senior citizen voters, even though he’s lost five of those eight percentage points he won by in the 2016 election.
“A Democratic candidate has not carried the senior vote since Clinton,” said Kraybill.
This is even among Hispanic and Blacks elderly, especially from that economical standpoint.
But as far as Millennials and Gen-Zers are concerned, Romo says the generation is seeking an economic shift.
“There’s no jobs for us to take. This is the first generation we see that is not going to do better than their parents did. Just in the short term Millennials are going to struggle, the economy is crashing, because of COVID but it was even hanging by a thread before COVID,” said Romo.
Both Romo and Reed are encouraging blue and red Millennials, respectively to go out and vote this
election.
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