The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation has released a report on the state of Black civic power in Ohio. It's the first county-level study of Black midterm non-voters in the state. One of the main findings is that more than 600,000 Black Ohioans did not vote in the last midterm elections in 2022.
WOSU’s Debbie Holmes spoke with Shayla L. Davis, president and chief of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation.
Holmes: Why didn't more Black voters cast a ballot in 2022? Do we know some of the reasons?
Davis: So, we believe based off the metrics and the information that the researchers found is simply because of all the different barriers and let's be honest, the disconnect is between what is happening politically and what they see happening in their day-to-day lives. Some of this also directly points back to those individuals not being tapped into, because they're not seen as the relevant voters during election cycle seasons. A lot of times, campaigns and candidates tend to leave those individuals left on unread is what I'll use in modern terms. And because of that, those people never get asked and a lot of times what we are finding is that we need to ask them to show up to the polls and vote so that we can bring change in Ohio that people in this state really want to see.
Holmes: Where did you find that most of the Black voters who sat out the 2022 election live? Are they mostly urban, then suburban, or where?
Davis: So, they're predominantly in our eight main counties. And so that would be Lucas, Franklin, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Butler, Summit, Mahoning. And I believe I may be leaving one more off, but those are the primary counties. And for the most part, they're in the metropolitan areas with those inner ring surrounding suburbs being attached to that as well, specifically in Cuyahoga County where I'm headquartered and listed as you know, being a resident. We have 162,000 (Black voters) across Cuyahoga County. And I believe that probably out of that 162,000, there's probably about 100,000 (Black voters) who are out of the city of Cleveland. So, that's a tremendously large number.
Holmes: Now, what do you think that did to the election results then? If we go back, former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, he lost his race to Bernie Marino, a Republican.
Davis: If we're assuming that all Black Ohioans are going to swing more toward issues that are more socially adjusted to what they could be experiencing, I believe it could absolutely change the outcomes. If you look at our study that drops tomorrow, it does break down what 300,000 votes across the state of Ohio, out of that 603,000 could do for a statewide race to swing seats and potentially change the outcome of these elections to get someone that they believe is more representative of them. Because the foundation serves as a nonpartisan 501c3, we just want to ensure that all Black Ohioans have a voice when it's time to vote on Election Day.
Holmes: What needs to happen to motivate Black voters? In 2024, a Black woman, Kamala Harris, ran for president. We've heard that a decent percentage of Black men voted for Donald Trump.
Davis: So, I believe what has happened here again is going back to the issues. I'm not quite sure that we are resonating with them in their daily lived experiences. I believe that when the presidential election comes, you know you hear all the fanfare, and you just hear a lot of mudslinging, unfortunately. But when we get down to the reality of what people are experiencing on a daily basis right now if we were to talk about gas prices, if we were talk about food, if we would talk about the inability to access childcare and affordable health care, then I think that we would be able to meet people exactly where they are.
Again, this goes back to a more local grassroots effort to knock on doors, to reach these people. When I say knock on doors, I mean that in a very figurative stance. I don't necessarily mean door knocking is going to work, but we've got to get to where the community is to show up and have those conversations with them.
