Will blacks swing the election to Trump?

No racial group has suffered more from illegal immigration than Black America.  Yet the question remains: Will large numbers of African-Americans finally vote Republican and help Donald Trump build his wall and rebuild America?  In our opinion, the answer is a resounding yes. 

Blacks represent 31 percent of the population in Georgia, 22 percent in North Carolina, 20 percent in Virginia, 16 percent in Florida, 14 percent in Michigan, 12 percent in Ohio, 11 percent in Pennsylvania, and 10 percent in Nevada. These are critical swing states where the black vote could very well turn out to be the swing vote.

{mosads}At 15 percent (IBD/TIPP), Donald Trump has nearly double — some polls place him at triple — the African-American support of the last two Republican nominees for President combined.  Something you’ll never hear, nor read, in the mainstream media. We credit this record-breaking support to his sharp business acumen and the fact that he is not a career politician, but rather a candidate with common sense solutions to fix the failed policies that have plagued the minority community for far too long. Above all, we credit it to the fact that minorities are tired of the same broken promises every four years.

For decades, the Democratic Party has taken the black vote for granted — albeit for good statistical reason:  Barack Obama captured 99 percent of the black vote in 2008 and 95 percent in 2012, but it hardly takes a black Democrat to get over 90 percent — John Kerry (93 percent) and Al Gore (95 percent) both did.

Ironically, this election may be different precisely because of Obama. He, a politician of color, hope and change was supposed to point Black America, if not towards the Promised Land, than at least in the right direction.  Instead, virtually every measure of the quality of black life continues to point down.

At 9.2 percent, the black unemployment rate is more than double that for whites (4.4 percent). Over 24 percent percent of the black population is in poverty compared to less than 9.1 percent for whites.

In 2009, when Obama took office, the median weekly earnings of blacks was 79 percent that of whites and has barely budged[i] while the black labor participation rate has fallen from 63.2 percent in January of 2009 to 61.8 percent today. Today, the rate of homeownership for blacks is 41.3 percent versus 71.9 percent for whites. Never before has an entire political party been so disconnected with the issues facing the American workforce, yet alone minority hardships.

Against the backdrop of this grim economic news, many of America’s black urban neighborhoods are falling further into a downward spiral of crime, drug addiction, and gun violence. Obama’s own hometown of Chicago had the most homicides in 2015 of any American city — by far; the current Democratic nominee hails from the same city.

So yes, blacks have seen the Obama-Clinton-Democratic Party version of the Promised Land and they should want their vote back. Fifty two years after the Great Society, this Democratic utopia still looks like food stamps, welfare checks, broken down public schools, drug cartels, abject poverty, rising drug addiction, jailed youth, and a perverse web of welfare state incentives that has fostered a boom in foster homes and single-parent households.

Trump’s version of the Promised Land is as markedly different as it is uplifting. He promises more jobs, more opportunity and a rekindling of the entrepreneurial spirit in a color-blind America.

Donald J. Trump has employed more blacks and Latinos in his own enterprises than any presidential candidate in history. An author of this piece is one of them. 

Trump applies the same tenets in life that he applies in the boardroom. In business, it’s all about what you bring to the table — it’s not about your gender, ethnicity, religion.

I, (Lynne), am a black, female executive who has worked for the Republican candidate and his family for the last seven years and is held to the same standard as other executives at The Trump Organization. If an individual does not successfully perform his or her job responsibilities under Mr. Trump, that individual will be terminated.  Period. Donald Trump will hold his Administration to the same expectations and consequences.

Trump has also pledged to stop China and Mexico from stealing American jobs and factories.  This is a particularly comforting message for the black and blue collar workers in manufacturing hubs from Cleveland to Detroit to Charlotte to Philadelphia  and the polling numbers in these states are beginning to reflect the same.  

More importantly, Trump has boldly promised to stop the flood of illegal immigrants bringing so much economic and social misery to the black community. His reasoning is simple: The more illegal labor that crosses the southern border, the more our competitive wages & job opportunities decrease in America — particularly in minority communities.  

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, since Obama took office, “about 2.5 million illegal immigrants have settled in the U.S.” — and it’s been a punch right in the gut of Black America. As U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Peter Kirsanow has warned: “In addition to depressing black employment levels, illegal immigration — frankly any low-skilled immigration — tends to drive down the wages of jobs that are available for black Americans.”  Explains A.J. Delgado: “[Like it or not] African Americans are disproportionately employed in lower-skilled jobs — the very same jobs immigrants take.”

If black Americans truly wants a candidate who will double-down on failed minority policies — then by all means vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton. However, the undisputed alternative is Donald Trump. A candidate who is excellent for the economy, tough on crime, smart on trade and remarkably candid about the damage being done by illegal immigration. More importantly, he is a candidate who will finally do something about it; and it’s about time.  

Lynne Patton is Vice President of The Eric Trump Foundation & Senior Advisor/Family Liaison for the Donald J. Trump Campaign.  She was a keynote speaker at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Peter Navarro is a UC-Irvine professor and a senior policy advisor to the Trump campaign.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.