Kamala Harris’s biggest opponent for young Black voters isn’t Trump

Behind Alabama, North Carolina is tied with Georgia for having the most historically Black colleges and universities. And that means that as Vice President Kamala Harris makes a play for North Carolina, she has made a play for HBCUs.

HBCUs play a significant role in the Black community. Initially created after the Civil War, they became important institutions for Black Americans when they could not attend predominantly white institutions that remained segregated.

Harris’s history as an alumnus of an HBCU — Howard University — and a member of the Alpha Kappa Alphas has some believing she will be able to uniquely appeal to younger Black voters who were moving away from the Democratic Party until President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election.

James Christian, who is from Prince George’s County in Maryland, and a student at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina, called the election “brutal” but said he made his decision after the debate between Harris and Trump. He likes that Harris is representing the Black community, he added, and thinks she’s “the better of the two options in this election.”

Aimy Steele, the chief executive at the New North Carolina Project, told The Independent said that her organization is going to high schools and colleges to get voters registered and energized. But she added that Israel’s war with Hamas, as well as student loans and economic mobility, remain big issues for young people. That could pose a problem for Harris later down the line.

And on NCCU’s county of Durham, Harris’s support is not as dyed-in-wool as she might hope.

Cameron Johnson, a senior at NCCU, said that he will be voting for Harris, but added caveats.

“I think she's getting a lot of love