If Donald Trump’s resounding victory proves anything, it’s that Democrats presume minority voters will always be on their side.
Within hours of her loss, news leaked that Kamala Harris had rejected an outreach plan floated by the Congressional Black Caucus; throughout the campaign, she focused more on wooing young female voters than Hispanics.
The left’s failure to keep the support of those they’ve relied on for decades leaves me wondering: When’s the last time a Democratic strategist even talked to a minority voter?
Surely the left’s leaders would benefit from interactions like those I had in April, which convinced me even then that Donald Trump was going to win reelection.
At the time, my daughter’s Jeep had been stolen from Chicago’s North Side, where she lives. The police found it after a few days, and told me I’d have to pick it up at an impound lot on the city’s South Side.
I dutifully drove down, where I joined a line of about 30 people, all black and Hispanic except for me.
As the wait dragged on, we got to talking. Person after person told me this was their second or third time there that week.
The first time they reached the front of the line, they were told they’d filled out the wrong form or had gone to the wrong office, at which point they were directed elsewhere. Yet they were inevitably redirected right back to the impound lot.
At first, I didn’t believe it — but after an hour-long wait, the staffer on duty told me I didn’t have the right documents.
I said I’d brought what the police told me to bring; the staffer snorted and sent me home to get different papers.
I came back a few hours later, going to the front of the line, as the staffer had told me to do. But to my surprise, she screamed at me to go to the back.
By now the line had about 50 people, again all black and Hispanic, and every one of them burst out laughing. Head down, I trudged backward, where people clapped my shoulders and told me to shake it off.
Turns out, they weren’t laughing at me. They were laughing at the absurdity of the situation, which they had experienced time and again.
A few hours later, I finally convinced the staffer that I had the right forms, had followed the right procedures, and deserved to get my daughter’s Jeep back.
By that point, I’d talked to at least half the people in the room. The same phrase kept popping up: that the situation was “so messed up,” although they used a less family-friendly word.
They felt like their government was conspiring against them — dooming them to waste their days waiting in lines and filling out forms.
I didn’t ask anyone there who they planned to vote for, but many of them volunteered they felt angry at the politicians who put them in this situation.
In Chicago, that inevitably means Democrats, who’ve not only created broken city services, but also a broken school system and a broken welfare system — and have contributed mightily to the breakdown of communities that offer few opportunities.
And what’s true in Chicago is true in urban areas nationwide, and entire states like California and New York.
If the people you’ve voted for have routinely made your life worse, why on earth would you keep voting for them?
No wonder Trump drew the support of an estimated 20% of black men and an outright majority of Latino men last week, while also doing far better than previous Republicans among minority voters of both genders.
He genuinely tried to win their vote, directly addressing minority communities’ frustrations and aspirations.
Compare that to Kamala Harris, whose last-minute attempt to win black men involved promises of free federal money and legalizing marijuana — as clear a pander as you’ll ever see.
The people I met in that impound-lot line don’t want weed or free money.
They want the freedom to leave that government-created mess behind, moving forward with their lives and unlocking their innate potential.
Donald Trump spoke to that profound desire.
Now, of course, he has to deliver.
He needs to champion the free-market policies that have always been the key to the American Dream, building on the dramatic successes of his first term while avoiding harmful government-first policies that hold people back, like overbroad tariffs.
If he follows through with his promise of real opportunity, he may kick-start a generational realignment among black and Hispanic voters.
For too long, Democrats have taken them for granted. Now it’s up to Donald Trump and the Republicans to grant the future that’s rightfully theirs.
John Tillman is CEO of the American Culture Project.
