In the more pearl-clutching over the SCOTUS Callais decision category, here's the latest lightning bolt to hit legacy media: Black voters, particularly younger Blacks, are leaning toward the GOP.
Welcome to the party, pals. And break out the smelling salts for those who have fallen out, proclaiming it simply cannot be. Right-of-center media, and particularly our contributors here at RedState, have been documenting this shift for years. Its apex was realized in the election of Donald Trump in 2024, with Black support at record highs.
As RedState reported in 2024:
The wildcard in this election was the Black vote. Trump made gains in the Black community, especially among Black men. He was at 11 percent in 2020 and achieved 25 percent in 2024.
That wildcard has now become a trend, and legacy media have no idea what to do with it.
A generational and structural shift is decoupling Black identity from Democratic Party loyalty, transforming a once-reliable voting bloc into a cohort of "political free agents" that the GOP is uniquely positioned to exploit.
Stop taking the black vote for granted. Black people are waking up and leaving the Democratic Party. Nobody owns us. https://t.co/xdUwLtu6jq
— Lattina Brown, MPA 🇯🇲🇺🇸 (@LattinaBrown) May 5, 2026
Related: Data Analyst Delivers Some Astonishing Polling News for Trump and GOP
What is truly smacking their gob? That Hitler-Racist Trump is not just precipitating this change, he continues to gain ground in approval among Black Americans.
President Trump is making gains with Black voters despite posting racist videos, using racist rhetoric and advancing policies critics say erase slavery history and weaken voting rights.
An Axios review of recent data shows breaks in the strong Black support for Democrats going back to John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential run and Barack Obama's historic 2008 win.
Trump is besting "light bringer" Obama? That must be shaking the entire Democrat establishment to its core.
Trump is benefiting less from persuasion and more from a changing electorate. It's younger, more diverse and less tied to traditional party loyalties, said Theodore Johnson, a senior adviser at New America.
"The numbers we're seeing now are higher than they were eight years ago — but Black voters were a different kind of voter coming out of the Obama presidency," Johnson tells Axios.
"When you detach partisan identity from racial identity, you get more Black voters willing to take a chance on a Republican," he said. "That's not a realignment. It's more political free agents."
No, duh. The legacy media and Democrats have assumed for decades that they own the Black vote, and sadly, many Blacks, even those who don't vote, do little to disabuse them of that notion. We have long argued in these pages that Blacks are not a monolith, and the main issue is that Democrats and Republicans have marginalized, ignored, and taken advantage of certain voters for the bright and shiny objects of either identity politics or the donor class.
Until Trump, who spoke toward restoring the success of all Americans, but also recognized how both parties had forgotten about certain voting blocs. In his inaugural address, he took the time to give a shout-out to Blacks and Hispanics who gave him their vote.
In the portion of his speech about unifying the nation and the increase of support among the spectrum of Americans that brought about his electoral victory and his presidency, Trump specifically crafted a "Thank You" and a commitment to Black and Hispanic communities.
To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records and I will not forget it.
Read More: Trump Specifically Thanks Blacks and Hispanics in His Inaugural Address: 'I Will Not Forget It'
Black Men and Women for Trump Post Videos and Launch the Hashtag #ImNotWithHer
So, the days of taking votes for granted are all but done. The Callais decision, which limited how Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act can be administered and thoroughly restricted racial gerrymandering in electoral maps, has changed the landscape and brought back actual competition rather than baked-in outcomes. So, the legacy media is being forced to pay attention to actual voting patterns, and they finally discovered that the Black vote has escaped Democrats' grasp.
CNN's Harry Enten, with his usual hyperbolic delivery, laid out the poll numbers that confirm this as fact.
Enten reported that President Trump and the Republican Party are "chipping away at the long-term advantage the Democrats have had with Black voters, with African-Americans."
Enten pointed out the Gallup information that among Blacks, Trump has a 16 percent approval rating in his second term. This is a four-point gain from where Trump was in his first term, with an approval rating of 12 percent. It's not about just the number; it's the fact that presidents generally do not gain ground in approval in their second term.
Dive Deeper: DCCC Caught Putting ‘Thumb on the Scale’ in 2026 Primaries, ‘Narrowing Democracy’
Congressional Democrat Approval Ratings Hit Rock Bottom As Discontent Grows Ahead of 2026 Midterms
Enten projected, "This has major implications for elections down the line. Because Democrats, especially in a lot of these tight races, you talk about places like Georgia, right down in the South. You see this type of movement for Trump actually gaining ground; this could have major ramifications and could help put Republicans over the top in a number of Southern places in the midterm elections."
WATCH:
🚨Trump’s GOP is locking in generational gains with Black voters — up 12 points in party ID from his first term, and his approval rating is even higher now.
— Don Keith (@RealDonKeith) April 30, 2026
Even CNN’s Harry Enten admits the shift is real and holding.
The media’s “racist Trump” narrative is collapsing. pic.twitter.com/U1E2pXUsbN
Enten said something else that is key: "I see this absolutely as part of a bigger trend. Donald Trump's Republican Party is absolutely gaining ground, not just him gaining in terms of his approval ratings, but look at the party ID margin, Kate, because this to me is absolutely stunning."
It's also not just what we call the old heads. Younger voters find the administration's aspirational focus more appealing than perpetual victimhood.
We’ve been telling yall this since 2016. Younger black voters are demanding more from democrats than our elders. Fear mongering doesn’t work on us, we’ve known our future is screwed for a long time. 🤷🏽♂️
— Samuel (@Simply_Samuel18) May 5, 2026
Legacy media doesn't know what to do with itself, and Democrats continue to gaslight, but the reality reflects this: Promoting the American Dream and national excellence while offering policies that help every American to achieve this will trump decades of failed policies and identity politics all day long and twice on Sunday.
We've recognized this for a long time. Legacy media is trying to catch up.
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