Black Voters for Biden-Harris launches in Wisconsin, bringing endorsements from 50 Black elected leaders

The Democratic Party is ramping up organizing efforts in Wisconsin with its Black Voters for Biden initiative, launched Friday at Milwaukee's Sherman Phoenix.

The Biden-Harris campaign announced Friday morning that more than 50 Black current and former elected leaders and officials from across Wisconsin endorsed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for reelection.

Shortly after the announcement, Rep. Gwen Moore, Mayor Cavalier Johnson and state Sen. Latonya Johnson spoke to reporters about the initiative and the party's goal of strengthening Black voters' commitment to the president in November.

"We are ridin' with Biden," Moore said.

Mayor Johnson spoke positively about the Biden administration’s commitment to the Black community, highlighting a recent allocation of $83 million to replace and repair contaminated lead pipes and a reinvestment in infrastructure projects across the state.

"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been champions for Black Wisconsinites, and we want Joe and Kamala to finish the job," Cavalier Johnson said. "Growing Black wealth and lowering the Black unemployment rate, closing the racial wealth gap, lowering prescription drug prices and also investing in historically Black colleges and universities here in the United States, and we don't have to imagine what a second Trump presidency would look like."

The mayor criticized former president Donald Trump's support of restrictions to abortion access and the elimination of Obamacare, and stated that, if Trump is elected, his legislative agenda would impose more barriers to affordable housing to low income communities. Johnson said all those issues will inflict harm upon Black voters.

During the event, Moore contrasted Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and Biden and spoke about the former president's unfulfilled promises to the Black community. She spoke about Trump's leading role in the unfulfilled Foxconn development deal that was negotiated during Trump's presidency.

Johnson and Moore lauded the Biden administration's economic investments in the state and spoke about the president's role in bringing Microsoft's planned $3.3 billion investment to its Mount Pleasant data center.

"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have shown you what they will do and not just talk about what they will do. It is our responsibility, I think, to show up for people who have shown for us," Moore said.

Moore expressed concern about Trump's history of racist behavior. She referenced his call for the death penalty of the Central Park Five, five Black men who were wrongfully accused of raping a woman in New York City in 1989.

Sen. Johnson echoed Moore's statement and called out the Trump administration and the Republican National Committee counterparts for closing a minority outreach center in Milwaukee in March. The building, located in Milwaukee's south side Lincoln Village neighborhood, has since been turned into an ice cream shop.

""For the first time in 20 years, the Democratic Coordinating Campaign headquarters is based right here in the city of Milwaukee. That's significant signaling," Johnson said. "It's clear that President Biden and Vice President Harris are not taking a single vote for granted in this election."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Black Voters for Biden-Harris launches in Wisconsin with endorsements