March 7, 2025
This dismantling of DEI by the Trump administration is not sitting well with Black voters. In fact, the poll suggests that standing up to Trump and his allies will be key in determining if Democrats can win future voters.
Get up and fight back against DEI.
That’s what a majority of frustrated Black Americans want from Democrats in Washington, D.C., where they’re catching every stray and punch from Republicans who are attacking DEI initiatives.
A survey from the 2040 Strategy Group reveals that a majority of Black Americans (67%) want Democrats to prioritize defending attacks on DEI as a part of the larger scheme to resist President Donald Trump’s agenda, which a majority of Black respondents also say is hostile to nonwhite Americans.
“With Trump in power and really making his white nationalist agenda clearer, we decided to go back into the field and ask [Black voters] their thoughts on what’s happening,” said Tillery.
Tillery is the founder of the Alliance For Black Equality Super Pac. As BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, Tillery sounded the alarm to Democrats more than a year before the presidential election that the party was losing ground with one of its core voting blocs: Black voters. He said the Biden-Harris campaign didn’t believe it. However, exit polls reveal Tillery was spot on.
“We calculated last fall that in order for them to win, they would need 83% to 84% of Black men to [turn out]. “Three weeks out from the election, she was only at 71% with Black men,” Tillery previously told BLACK ENTERPRISE. “The story of the election is that not only did young Black men vote significantly more for Donald Trump but also that Black voter turnout was down.”
Trump’s Warpath To Destroy DEI Initiatives
In his first 100 days in office, Trump has made a deliberate effort to roll back and weaponize civil rights laws that address discrimination and attempt to create an even playing field in the workforce, housing, and higher education — to name a few. In one instance, Trump rescinded the 60-year-old Executive Order 11246 (EO 11246), which required federal contractors to practice affirmative action based on race and gender.
As analysts point out in the 2040 Strategy Group’s latest survey, Trump’s executive order to end what it characterizes as “wasteful” DEI programs in the federal government puts a target on the backs of Black employees–who make up 18% of the federal workforce.
“Many Black Americans who once found access to the middle class through federal employment or even
college now find that the door has been shut,” the report reads.
This dismantling of DEI by the Trump administration is not sitting well with Black voters. In fact, the poll suggests that standing up to Trump and his allies will be key in determining if Democrats can win future voters.
“The failure of the Democratic messaging during the 2024 campaign was their refusal to talk about race, racism, race relation and Trump’s threats to Black communities as a result of his ideology, so there’s a lot of pent-up frustration,” says Tillery. “Respondents want the new leadership of the Democratic party, whomever that might be, to step up and message on these issues.”
The poll also reveals that Democrats lost 2 million Black voters in the last election cycle. Tillery says the most straightforward path to regaining a majority is to court Black voters, especially millennial and Gen Z Black voters who did not vote for the Harris-Walz ticket.
“Harris ran a near-flawless campaign. She was gifted and a great candidate, but she had the wrong strategy,” says Tillery. “Her strategy centered on white women. They spent 1.5 billion dollars on trying to convince white women in the suburbs to vote for her because of abortion rights or because Liz Cheney liked her.”
Tillery adds, “The easiest path back to victory is to really engage Black communities and speak to their concerns.”
