In US swing state Georgia, a battle for Black male votes

Ronald Jordan was all smiles Tuesday as he entered a polling booth in the US swing state of Georgia, where women voters appeared to outnumber men, but he felt a gnawing concern -- his Black male friends were sitting out the election.

Democratic contender Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump are both seeking to win over Black voters in the crucial southern state -- its largest minority voting bloc –- in a race that could be decided by razor-thin margins.

For Jordan, a Black 41-year-old Atlanta resident, the choice is obvious: He favors the Democrat over Trump's divisive "dark rhetoric" that he fears could tear the country apart.

But that sentiment is lost on about a dozen of his male Black friends, an apathetic group that he said is not favoring Trump but does not care to vote for Harris either.

"Are you a sexist? Are you upset that she's a Black woman and half Indian? Are you upset as to how she was put in this position?" Jordan recalled asking them at a recent dinner that devolved into a verbal duel.

"Unfortunately, no one was able to give me a reason," Jordan told AFP at a polling station in Fulton County, which saw a trickle of Black voters, a majority of them women.

The Democratic bastion, which includes most of the capital Atlanta, is crucial in deciding who wins the southern state -- and its coveted 16 electoral college votes.

Black voters traditionally lean heavily Democratic, but to win the tight election race, Harris needs them to turn out in force.

Underdog

Among early voters in the state, women have outpaced male voters by double digits, according to Georgia Votes, a data aggregation site.

Among Black people in Georgia, the gap between female and male voters is even more pronounced, the data shows.

The gender gap suggests that Black men "don't feel that their vote counts," South Fulton's Mayor Kobi told AFP at a polling station that temporarily halted voting due to a bomb threat.

"I would ask elected officials: What policies have they enacted for Black men to make them feel like their vote has counted?"

Election surveys have shown Harris winning women by large margins -- who are driven in part by anxiety over reproductive rights -- while struggling with men.

During election campaigning, former President Barack Obama implored Black men to get over their reluctance to support Harris, telling them that Trump doesn't represent "real strength."

Trump has sought to improve his performance with Black voters -- particularly men -- by making immigration the focus of his messaging, claiming that migrants were taking "Black jobs."

Whytne Stevens, a 28-year-old urban planner based in Atlanta, said her concerns about issues such as "inflation" and a soft jobs market were trumped by concerns about "existential questions about the future of the country."

Her vote for Harris "wasn't because she's the Black woman," Stevens told AFP.

It was because "she's not Trump," she added.

Many women voters view Harris to be this election's "underdog" candidate, having entered the race just months earlier -- after President Joe Biden dropped out as the Democratic candidate -- and is up against a fierce rival who is fighting his third election.

"Any time a woman is probably in a position of power, she's always going to be the underdog," Ludwidg Louizaire, a 27-year-old beauty queen, told AFP after casting her vote in Fulton County.

"Never count a woman out."