Group launches $4M initiative focused on Black men in battleground states

A new voter initiative focusing on Black men in battleground states launched Tuesday. 

The Collective PAC’s Vote to Live campaign is a $4 million investment that will work to educate Black men on election access and provide free transportation with 100,000 rides to polls during early voting in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“We launched Vote to Live knowing that Black men in the United States are not a monolith, and each and every Black man in this country deserves to make a choice and have it count,” said Quentin James, founder and president of The Collective PAC. 

“The idea that an eligible voter fails to cast a ballot due to a lack of education, registration, or transportation is unconscionable. For Black men around the country, who hold so much social, political, and individual power, it would be a travesty.”

Black men have become a crucial voting bloc in this year’s election. While an August survey from Pew Research Center found that Black men overwhelmingly support Vice President Harris over former President Trump, Harris has said she plans to fight for Black men’s vote. 

“I think it’s very important to not operate from the assumption that Black men are in anybody’s pocket,” Harris said during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists. “Black men are like any other voting group. You gotta earn their vote. So I’m working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black.”

Trump, meanwhile, has tried to recruit Black men by spending time in Black neighborhoods and utilizing voices like Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) on the campaign trail. 

Some of that seems to be working, as some recent surveys show Trump cutting into Harris’s advantage with Black men. 

Still, Black men are less likely than Black women to vote. 

The Vote to Live campaign hopes to register 50,000 Black voters; host homecoming parties at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) around the country throughout October, as well as “Party at the Polls” in six states on Oct. 26 to encourage Black voters to turn out early; and will launch a get out the vote bus tour with stops across battleground states in partnership with the Service Employees International Union and the NAACP.

“No matter their generation, background, or political view, we must ensure no Black voter gets left on the margins and they are a part of the nation’s highest democratic process, especially in battleground states that will shape our future for years to come,” James said.