JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Florida’s Black voters seem split on who to support in the remaining weeks of the 2024 presidential election. Those we spoke to in Jacksonville said they had serious trust issues with both candidates, whether knowing too much about the former president or not enough about the current Vice President.
The voting block is estimated to account for about 2.6 million eligible Florida ballots this election cycle. That’s a lot of votes in a state that Florida Democrats continue to insist is winnable on November 5.
Here’s what Black voters told us this week.
Dana Miller: “I hear a lot of African American guys talking they’re going to vote for Trump. I ask them why. They really don’t have a reason, they say they don’t know Kamala Harris. They don’t know her like that. I tell them we’ve voted for white guys for over 200 years. You didn’t know them.”
Kacheryl Gantt: “It’s a back and forth — is Trump this? Is Harris that? So like I said, everyone is on the fence.”
Honey Holzendorf: “I know who I am going to vote for — and it will be Kamala Harris. The day I saw him (Trump) remove babies out of their mom’s arms… (referencing migrant family separations at the border). I am a mom. I couldn’t imagine being separated from my baby.”
Jalen Hardy: “Right now? I don't know, because she’s (Harris), like, on our side, but she could be just saying that. And Donald Trump, all he cares about is money. So he get his money, he’s going to do what’s he’s going to do.”
Jasmin Bossard: “My biggest concern is the whole 2025— I think that’s what it’s called. And police immunity is one that I always get stuck on. Just the police being able to do whatever and having the immunity, that's a big one. We have a 16-year-old son. You know, raising a Black boy, um, driving, you know, hanging out with friends, you know, what I'm saying? Just doing— you just never know.”
Mario Bossard: “We have to do our best and do our due diligence to get the right information on who we think should be in office. But at the end of the day, everyone in that office has their own agenda, seems like. Goes back to— I'm 37— so I've seen a lot of different term of presidents, and seem like the world is still in the same place no matter who the president is. That's my issue.”
Barrell Clayborne: “It's a trust thing, you know? I mean, the idea that whoever goes in there, they're not going to help anyway with anything. They only going to be allowed to do so much, you know? I mean, so who's the best— who's the best devil? That's it. In other words, who's the best devil to go with? We know Trump. Kamala? She might be— she might be what we need.”
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
