Here's Why Young Black Men Like Me Are Voting for Trump (2024)

One of the most surprising things to happen in American politics during an election cycle full of surprises has been how well former President Donald Trump is polling with Black men. Poll after poll have shown him with support ranging from 20 percent to almost 40 percent, historic numbers for a Republican since the Civil Rights Act.

But then the race changed. Now, Trump's opponent is no longer an aging Joe Biden but Vice President Kamala Harris, who is herself Black and Indian.

Is the substitution of Harris going to change Trump's newfound support among Black men?

Not when it comes to this Black man, nor my friends. Most of us are still firmly in the Trump camp.

I grew up in a multi-generational home on the island of St. Croix, which is in the U.S. Virgin Islands. My family migrated to St. Croix from other Caribbean islands during the Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation boom of the 1970s and the Martin Marietta/VIALCO expansion of the 1980s. As Black man of West Indian heritage, my parents always told me the message a lot of other Black kids hear growing up: "You have three strikes against you already: You are Black, you are poor, and you are a man." They told me I would have to work harder and be better than everyone else if I wanted to be competitive in the world.

I didn't understand this growing up. My father and uncle were powerful role models for me. They worked hard to provide for the family and contribute to the community. I didn't really comprehend the context in which being Black or being a man would be held against me. I was raised in a culture where Black people were the majority, where we control the government and all other positions of prominence.

I started to understand what my parents meant when I moved to the U.S. for college to study Chemical & Natural Gas Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. That was my first exposure to racist stereotypes about Black Americans, including my own encounters being pulled over by traffic cops. Going to college just two hours from the Southern border, I was often asked if I was a U.S. citizen because of my accent.

I graduated from college and started my career as an Engineer-in-Training in the oilfields in 2012. Despite working on the Eagle Ford shale development, I saw the work start to dry up during Barack Obama's presidency due to his policies. Companies started downsizing to skirt the Affordable Care Act and its mandates, and the added regulations made it tougher on employers to hire new graduates and pay them enough to cover student loans and rent. Environmental regulations at the time resulted in the closing of manufacturing plants and slowdowns in the Oil and Gas sector; the refining capacity on the East Coast was reduced by 25 percent between 2012-2015.

I was unemployed for years under Obama's presidency. Bills went unpaid, and I was homeless for a while, couch-surfing with friends when the economy dipped.

Then, in 2016, my luck changed.

I didn't vote for Donald Trump that year—desperate for a new lease on life, I wrote in Senator Bernie Sanders (my deceased Dominican grandmother would have had a fit if I told her I voted for a socialist!). Yet who could have imagined the economy the Trump administration created? I was hired in December 2016 just on the prospect of the improved economy Trump was likely to build. Not only did his election get me hired back in my industry, but his presidency was so beneficial, I got many other Black friends from college hired on in Oil and Gas, and I saw our lives take off for the better.

I went from being homeless to making $80,000 a year. Suddenly I had a two-bedroom apartment, life insurance, and savings. I was able to go vacation with my then-fiancé several times a year.

Black men do not have to admire Trump's character to acknowledge his policies worked best for our interests. Many of us had great jobs. We were making money.

Then came President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and like Obama, they prioritized climate change, globalization, expansion of the welfare state, and the advancement of social ideologies over protecting American jobs and families. Their policies had a massively detrimental impact on the economy and the future prospects of the Everyday Man.

The majority of Black men in America are not professional athletes or celebrities—but we're also not poor or homeless or on welfare; we are everyday, hardworking men seeking to move ahead in life. And the Left seems to make that much harder—by hobbling the economy on the one hand, then pushing music and culture that tells men we're nothing if we aren't rich. It's a one-two punch for the three strikes Black man.

At the end of the day, all Americans want the same things: life, liberty, safety and security. For me and many of my Black male friends, reelecting President Trump gives us the best opportunity to become providers for our families and to get dignity from good paying jobs. That's why he's earned my vote.

Paul James, Jr. is a Conservative Precinct Chair in the Republican Party of Bexar and the President of the Young Republicans of Bexar County. He holds a degree in Chemical & Natural Gas Engineering and works as a Lead Frac Engineer powering the Texas Oil & Gas industry.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.