"Help4Men Radio Special" Your Right To Vote

Blacks are an important voting bloc

After tracking voting patterns in presidential elections from 1936 to 1960, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found Blacks voted Democratic between 60 to 80 percent. But since the 1964 election when Lyndon Johnson got 94 percent of the Black vote, the Democratic Party has received no less than 82 percent of the Black vote.

In 2012, 76 percent of Blacks called themselves Democrats, 16 percent Republican and eight percent other or independent. Obama got over 90 percent of the Black vote in his reelection bid.

As a result, one political party almost expects Blacks automatically to vote for them, while the other party virtually has given up seeking Black votes. This is true in Minnesota as well, where the DFL currently controls both legislative houses and the governor’s office. But some believe both parties need to do more to earn Black votes.

“I know that a lot of our people are discontent with the Republicans and the Democrats,” said Brooklyn Center resident Thomas Berry. “I think one of the things that we’ve done wrong is that we blindly [have] given our votes to folk that don’t respect us or love us, or care for us. We must make either party earn [our] vote.”

“Congress has been pretty much stalemate on the president and won’t allow things to go through,” said KMOJ Radio Station Manager Kelvin Quarles. “Our government is on lockdown.”

Some believe that it’s important for Black voters to keep Republicans out of office.

“I feel that if the Republicans get in there, they probably will display action or lack of action for us [Blacks] as they have in the past,” said KMOJ night personality Caddy “The Prince of Darkness.”

Either way, the Black voting bloc holds a lot of power, but only if Black voters show up to the polls.