The Harris Effect: Voter Registration Is Up 175% Among Young Black Women

One would expect increases in voter registration to occur after Kamala Harris entered the race, but nothing anywhere near this dramatic.

Source: New Jersey Advance

Voter registration among young Black women took off like a rocket across more than a dozen states after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race against former President Donald Trump, according to data.

As Vice President Kamala Harris worked to secure her party’s support in the week after Biden announced his decision, new registration among the group was up more than 175%, according to an analysis from TargetSmart.

It compared voter registration to the week of July 21, 2020 to July 21, 2024. While there would be little reason for a spike in registration in the middle of the summer of 2020, Tom Bonier, a senior advisor to TargetSmart, told CBS News’ Major Garrett that the data is a bombshell.

And part of their conversation:

Garrett: 175%, could that possibly be right? You must have triple-checked this, or many more times than that?

Bonier: You’re right to repeat the number because I’ve more than triple-checked it. It’s incredibly unusual to see changes in voter registration that are anywhere close to this. I mean, to remind people, 175% is almost tripling of registration rates among this specific group. You just don’t see that sort of thing happen in elections normally.

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