With Kamala Harris and Donald Trump set to engage in their first highly anticipated presidential debate Tuesday night in Philadelphia, Atlanta residents like Jacquavious Williams say they want to hear both candidates address the strain of inflation.
The 26-year-old Williams, an up-and-coming rapper whose stage name is 1LifeQuay, said he’s doing fine financially, but other Black folks in his Northwest Atlanta neighborhood are tired of struggling.
“Jobs only pay so much that you’ve got to spend all your money on rent,” Williams told Capital B Atlanta last week during an interview outside the West End Mall. “People don’t got no [extra money] to enjoy they self. … It’s like people [are] slaving.”
LBGTQ rights, abortion rights, and gun violence are some of the other issues Black voters in Atlanta’s West End said they want to hear discussed during Tuesday night’s debate, which takes place less than a week after the deadly mass shooting at Apalachee High School in nearby Winder.
But the high cost of housing, groceries, and other consumer goods remain the primary focus for many amid reports of surging evictions, rising homelessness, and widening inequality in what’s long been regarded as one of the nation’s most unequal cities.
“Why do we pay that much for fruit? Fruit comes from the ground,” Riverdale resident Ashley Thompson, 23, pondered on Thursday. “I feel like [the government] thinks we’re dummies.”
Average monthly rent in Atlanta has declined compared to this time last year, but prices are still significantly higher than their pre-pandemic levels. That lack of affordability is a concern shared by Atlanta University Center students, who continued to complain last week about difficulty finding and paying for housing on and near campus.
Kaiden Lymon, a 20-year-old junior at Clark Atlanta University, said he was forced to get an apartment off campus due to lack of available housing. He wants to hear Harris and Trump explain how they’d lower the cost of rent and groceries.
“With the way the economy is now, it’s hard for us to get the basic necessities and not feel like we’re barely surviving,” Lymon said last week. “We’re not really living. We’re all kind of surviving, just getting by day-by-day.”
Clark Atlanta sophomore Jewel Brown, 19, said Harris already has his support simply because she’s not Trump. He disagreed with reports indicating young Black men like him and Lymon are supporting Trump at higher rates this year, but said he also wants Harris to give him more reasons to support her.
“Talk about how she’s going to actually help the people,” Brown said. “A lot of people see that Donald Trump is this guy that we don’t want to vote for. But rather than hearing why we shouldn’t vote for Donald Trump, I just want to hear more on why we should vote for Kamala.”
The Harris housing plan
Harris’ plan to lower the cost of housing nationally includes stopping corporate landlords from price gouging consumers, capping unfair rent increases, and building 3 million new housing units over the next four years to increase supply and lower demand.
The vice president would also create a $40 billion federal fund to provide money for local housing supply solutions and broaden a tax credit for businesses that build affordable rental units. She also plans to fund $25,000 in down-payment assistance for working families who’ve paid their rent on time for two years.
The Trump housing plan
The Trump and Republican platform plan to tackle housing prices includes slashing inflation to reduce mortgage rates, building new homes on limited portions of federal land, and offering tax incentives that promote homeownership, according to Trump’s campaign website.
The former president also wants to eliminate unnecessary regulations that lead to higher housing costs, his website stated. The Trump campaign hasn’t responded to a request for additional comment.
Debate strategy for Harris
Harris’ entry into the race and centering her campaign on progressive economic policy while visiting areas of Georgia beyond Atlanta have helped her maintain momentum and win back Black voters who soured on Biden largely due to their financial woes over the last three-and-a-half years.
Svante Myrick, president of the progressive nonprofit group People for the American Way, said the vice president needs to continue talking about her own economic vision and how it differs from Biden’s in order to keep her base energized. Black voters make up about a third of the electorate in Georgia, a state Biden won by less than 12,000 votes almost four years ago. The vice president needs Black voters to turn out in large numbers to recapture Georgia’s 16 electoral college votes.
“Her plan to lower housing costs is the best I’ve ever seen from a national candidate ever,” Myrick said. “No president has ever proposed anything like it. She just has to sell that idea on Tuesday and make it clear this is what she intends to do.”
Debate strategy for Trump
Trump’s strategy when it comes to Black voters has relied largely on amplifying their complaints about Biden’s economy and comparing it to how things were when he was president.
Myrick said Trump has had a difficult time pinning Biden’s economy on Harris, but he would be wise to keep trying if he wants to erode her Black support.
“It’s just hard to paint her as Joe Biden 2.0,” Myrick said. “It’s [Trump’s] best bet, but it’s going to be hard to do.”
High stakes for a debate
Debates don’t usually play a decisive role in presidential elections, but Harris and Trump’s showdown on Tuesday may be an exception, according to Myrick.
Polls show Harris and Trump are virtually tied in Georgia right now due to the vice president all but erasing the lead Trump enjoyed over Joe Biden for most of the year in less than three months.
- Trump led Harris slightly (47% to 45%) in a FAU/Mainstreet poll of Georgia voters conducted in early September.
- An Insider Advantage poll of 800 likely Georgia voters conducted in late August showed Harris and Trump deadlocked at 48% apiece.
- The Hill and Emerson College’s late August poll of likely voters in Georgia had Harris up one point over Trump (49% to 48%), but within the poll’s margin of error.
- Both Fox News and Bloomberg/Morning Consult had Harris up 2 points less than two weeks ago. For comparison, Trump was up 10 points over Biden in Georgia in mid-July, according to a Fox 5 Atlanta/Insider Advantage poll.
The June 27 debate between Biden and Trump led to Biden dropping out of the presidential race, making it arguably the most consequential debate in American history. Myrick expects more eyeballs on Harris and Trump on Tuesday as a result.
“Because [the last debate] made such global shockwaves, we can expect more people to tune into this one,” he said. “It’s going to be pretty big, larger than usual.”
