What’s up with all those black men who voted for the Republican in the Georgia governor’s race?

Ted Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, said black male voters’ behavior in Georgia’s gubernatorial race reflected a return to how they voted before 2008, when Barack Obama made his successful bid to become the first black president of the United States.

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Before that election, around 82 percent of black men voted for Democrats, about 10 points lower than black women. “Now that Obama is out, basically black men have gone back to where they were before” in terms of supporting Democrats, Johnson said. “The fact that Abrams got in the high 80s or low 90s means she outperformed Democratic candidates, pre-Obama, among black men.”

Sexism was probably not a major factor in black men supporting Abrams at a lower rate, Johnson said. He cited a paper published earlier this year that looked at how gender stereotypes affected black and white voters’ behavior in the 2016 presidential election.

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