The Black Male Voter Project is a group that seeks to increase the number of Black male voters. The organization operates with offices in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia and focuses on 17 priority states. ^{1 2}

The organization was founded by Democratic political consultant W. Mondale Robinson. ³

Background

The Black Male Voter Project wants to increase the number of Black males that are “super voters.” It says traditional campaigning is not sufficient to address the problem of “sporadic or low information Black men” not voting. ⁴

The Black Male Voter Project has a $7.9 million budget. It operates with offices in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia. ⁵

The Pew Research Center reported that in the 2016 election, 64 percent of eligible Black women said they voted compared to 54 percent of Black men. The project says it hoped to close the gender gap from 10 percent to 4 percent. ⁶

The project has 17 priority states that includes digital targeting, phone banking, peer to peer texting, and relational organizing. ⁷

The states and districts are Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Michigan.

The organization says, “The history of the United States is a story about the disenfranchisement of millions based on their Blackness.” To reverse this, the organization says it is dedicated to “reversing these neo-colonial ideas.” ⁸

Founder

Mondale Robinson founded the Black Male Voter Project. He has worked for more than 160 political campaigns. He has appeared on news programs such as Democracy Now, Al-Jazeera, NPR, ABC, MSNBC, and Australian Public Broadcasting. ⁹

Robinson was the national political director for Democracy for America. He has been a political contributor for The Village Celebration. ¹⁰

After spending about 20 years as a Democratic political consultant, Robinson said: “most of the people who determine what’s said about politics generally, but progressive politics more specifically, are White men. The messaging they convey doesn’t speak to my lived experience as a Black man.” ¹¹

Advocacy

The organization pushes issues for local, state, and national policy, such as putting trades back in schools, ending cash bail and putting an end to qualified immunity for police officers. ¹²

During the 2020 election cycle, the Black Male Voter Project says it engaged in direct voter engagement with Black men in the 17 priority states. It said it achieved increased participation across the board, surpassing what pundits and pollsters predicted. ¹³

Black Male Voter Project founder W. Mondale Robinson said in Georgia, 1 million Black men are registered voters, but 460,000 had not voted in six consecutive elections. The organization says it engaged all 1 million registered Black men in Georgia and increased turnout by more than 20 percent. ¹⁴ More than 80,000 Black men in Georgia who did not vote in 2016 or 2018 did vote in 2020, according to the Black Male Voter Project. ¹⁵

Robinson criticized President Joe Biden for his 2022 State of the Union address, claiming the president put bipartisanship ahead of the interest of Black Americans. Robinson said Biden should have used the occasion to publicly criticize U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) for not voting to end the filibuster. Robinson claimed there were no bipartisan solutions to helping Black Americans. ¹⁶ He separately said the number of swing voters was so small it was not worth wasting money on, and that “Voters vote the way they always voted, and they will continue to.” ¹⁷

Robinson also criticized Biden, saying the president could not go to a heavily Black state and say, “This is what we delivered in 2021.” He added Black men are not happy about the “nothingness” from Biden and said, “Does it make the work harder? It makes the work damn near impossible.” ¹⁸

Political Committee

The Black Male Voter Project’s PAC spent $40,900 in the 2020 elections, according to Opensecrets. Out of that, $30,900 was spent for electing Democrats, while another $10,000 was spent in opposition to Republicans. ¹⁹

1. Wehle, Kim. “Getting More Black Men to the Polls.” Washington Monthly. October 5, 2020. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/10/05/getting-more-black-men-to-the-polls/
2. “Our Work.” Black Male Voter Project. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://blackmalevoterproject.org/our-work/
3. “Mission and Vision.” Black Male Voter Project. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://blackmalevoterproject.org/mission-and-vision/
4. “Mission and Vision.” Black Male Voter Project. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://blackmalevoterproject.org/mission-and-vision/
5. Wehle, Kim. “Getting More Black Men to the Polls.” Washington Monthly. October 5, 2020. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/10/05/getting-more-black-men-to-the-polls/
6.  James, Danielle. “Black Male Voter Project fighting to show political system that Black men’s vote is year-round effort.” The Grio. January 26, 2021. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://thegrio.com/2021/01/26/black-male-voter-project/
7.   “Our Work.” Black Male Voter Project. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://blackmalevoterproject.org/our-work/
8. “Mission and Vision.” Black Male Voter Project. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://blackmalevoterproject.org/mission-and-vision/
9. “Mission and Vision.” Black Male Voter Project. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://blackmalevoterproject.org/mission-and-vision/
10. James, Danielle. “Black Male Voter Project fighting to show political system that Black men’s vote is year-round effort.” The Grio. January 26, 2021. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://thegrio.com/2021/01/26/black-male-voter-project/
11. Blow, Charles. “Democrats’ Black male voter problem.” The New York Times. September 11, 2022. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/11/opinion/democrats-black-male-voter-problem.html
12.  “Our Work.” Black Male Voter Project. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://blackmalevoterproject.org/our-work/
13.  “Our Work.” Black Male Voter Project. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://blackmalevoterproject.org/our-work/
14. James, Danielle. “Black Male Voter Project fighting to show political system that Black men’s vote is year-round effort.” The Grio. January 26, 2021. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://thegrio.com/2021/01/26/black-male-voter-project/
15. Ax, Joseph and McKay, Rich. “With U.S. Senate at stake, Black voters loom large for Democratic candidates in Georgia.” Reuters. December 23, 2020. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/with-us-senate-stake-black-voters-loom-large-democratic-candidates-georgia-2020-12-23/
16. Chalfant, Morgan and Parnes, Amie. “Centrists praise Biden’s State of the Union pivot as overdue.” March 20, 2022. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/596620-centrists-praise-bidens-state-of-the-union-pivot-as-overdue/
17. ^[1] Adams, Kimberly. “Is chasing swing voters a waste of campaign money?” Marketplace. September 28, 2020. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://www.marketplace.org/2020/09/28/chasing-swing-voters-waste-campaign-money/
18. Blow, Charles. “Democrats’ Black male voter problem.” The New York Times. September 11, 2022. Accessed November 4, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/11/opinion/democrats-black-male-voter-problem.html
19. “Black Male Voter Project.” Open Secrets. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/detail/2020?cmte=C90019373