Viewpoints: 50 Cent or 20 Cent?

50 Cent or 20 Cent?

A perspective from Joseph Stipp

(Editor’s note: this “Viewpoints” column was submitted on November 19, 2020. Chapelboro publishes the submissions we receive in the order we receive them.)

“Yeah, I don’t want to be 20cent. 62% is a very, very, bad idea,” tweeted award-winning rapper 50 Cent in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election. Referring to the expected tax spike if Democratic challenger Joe Biden is elected, 50 came out in support for President Donald Trump. In a culture where tweeting support for Trump can get you fired from your job within a day, you can already assume what the responses from the social media community were. Why was he willing to support Trumps bid for reelection knowing the backlash he would face? I believe it might be representative of a broader trend of some Black voters switching sides in America.

50 Cent’s tweets were followed by a small storm of African American celebrities and elites who came out to also voice their support for Donald Trump. Most of social media seem shocked. Where the hell did all this support come from? I remember my friend (a Biden supporter) saying right before the election “for as long as I can remember I’ve been told that if someone is Black, they support the Democratic party, right?”

Well at least we know that’s what Joe Biden thinks, saying that “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.” I guess a lot of African Americans aren’t truly Black, because in the election we saw record numbers of African American voters turn out for the man in red.

Now let me frame what I mean by a record number. Historically the Black voter share has been dominated by Democrats. In 2008, 95% of Black voters voted for the wildly popular African American candidate Barack Obama. In 2012, 93% did again, and then in 2016 slightly less as 89% of Blacks voted for Hillary Clinton. These are obviously incredibly good percentages, but here’s where it gets interesting.

In 2020, riding the wings of the pandemic and an African American vice president as well as having previously been vice-president to Barack Obama, Joe Biden should have seen a record number of Black voters with the same high percentages that Obama got. However, that wasn’t the case — and honestly, it wasn’t even close. Trump actually gained more support from Black voters when they were supposed to go historically the other way. Overall with minorities, Trump did much better and gained a 4% advantage in votes received. Is it time for the Democrats to start ringing alarm bells about this? Maybe it is.

4% points is quite a big margin for a Republican candidate to gain with minorities and considering they usually receive a higher portion of the white vote, which is the majority of voters most of the time, it’s an interesting thing to keep our eyes on moving forward. Trump also did exceedingly well with young Black voters. Almost 44% of Black voters between the age of 18-29 voiced support for Trump in polling done before the election. 44 PERCENT! That might be telling for future generations to come.

This is all to say that future elections probably will not be getting any less contested moving forward, regardless of what pundits on both sides seem to say. More white voters, especially women, might be turning to the Democratic party but if Republicans can find a way to continue these trends and make bigger gains with African American and Hispanic voters then it might be quite an interesting next few years.

Featured photo via Richard Shotwell/Invision/Associated Press.

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Viewpoints: 50 Cent or 20 Cent?

50 Cent or 20 Cent?

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