Black voters supported Democrats more firmly than any other racial or ethnic group in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, defying predictions that the party had lost this crucial voting bloc, a national survey found.
About 85 out of every 100 Black voters chose Democrats for the U.S. House, according to Henry Fernandez, CEO of the African American Research Collaborative, which conducted the 2026 midterm election voter poll with BSP Research.
“After a 2024 cycle with a lot of talk about erosion of the support of Democrats by Black voters, Black voters delivered the Democratic Party’s strongest numbers once again in 2026,” Fernandez said.
The survey included responses from more than 10,000 voters.
By comparison, about two-thirds of Latino and Asian American voters backed Democrats, as did nearly six in 10 Native American voters. White voters leaned Republican, though by a smaller amount than before.
“People of color were the backbone of the massive Democratic success,” Fernandez said.
Young Black men and Trump voters
Support was strongest among older Black women. More than nine in 10 Black women ages 40 and older voted for Democrats.
Young Black men, ages 18 to 39, were the least supportive group, but even there, about seven in 10 chose Democrats.
“Work can be done to grow support among younger African Americans,” Fernandez said.
The pollsters also tested the idea that President Donald Trump had won over young Black men in 2024. Across all races, about nine in 10 Trump voters stuck with Republicans this year. Only about one in 10 switched to Democrats.
Black Trump voters were different. More than one in three of them voted for Democrats this time, and so did nearly three in 10 young Black men who had backed Trump.
“This is a major shift, and significant work was done to achieve this,” Fernandez said.
About three in four Black voters disapprove of how Trump is confronting out-of-pocket expenses such as the price of groceries, the economy, and immigration enforcement. His lowest marks came on the war with Iran, where only about one in six approved.
“There is, frankly, no issue we tested where Trump gets above a quarter of Black voters,” Fernandez said.
Kitchen-table concerns
Asked to pick their top three issues from a list of 20, six in 10 Black voters named the cost of living, far more than any other issue. Jobs, affordable housing, health care costs, and gas prices each were next.
“These are folks’ everyday bills, and that’s where Black voters are certainly feeling the squeeze,” Fernandez said.
That squeeze is familiar in Bakersfield.
In May, 23ABC News reported that sisters Eva and Christy Eaton, shopping at African Boutique for a work-event dress, said paying bills leaves little room for anything else.
Christy Eaton, a mother of two, said beef she once bought for several meals no longer stretches.
“Now you can barely feed four people with that,” she told the station. A local business owner told the station that some customers must choose between feeding their children and buying hair products.
Local food banks have felt it too. In March 2025, Kelly Lowery, who runs the Community Action Partnership of Kern food bank, told 23ABC that demand had more than doubled in two years because of inflation and food costs, with visits rising from about 92,000 a month in early 2023 to more than 200,000.
The Bakersfield News Observer reported in May that about 7,000 students a month line up at Bakersfield College’s Renegade Pantry, with some skipping class to wait. At the time, state lawmakers were considering cutting the Cal Food program, which helps stock the pantry through CAPK, from $80 million to $8 million.
Voting rights and civil rights
More than eight in 10 Black voters support passing a new Voting Rights Act. Nearly three in four worry their voting rights are under attack and that it is getting harder for people like them to vote.
Asked whether civil rights, such as free speech, equal treatment and the right to vote, are safe since Trump returned to office, more than eight in 10 Black voters said those rights are either gone or at risk. Only one in 10 said they are secure.
Fernandez said Black voters’ views are similar nationwide, partly because most Black families have Southern roots. He pointed to Black candidates winning statewide offices across the South. Fernandez said fears about voting and civil rights helped drive turnout, but years of groundwork made the wins possible.
“These wins happen after real work is done on the ground, and usually after there have been a couple of losses by good candidates who did the work to build infrastructure and to make people believe it was possible,” he said.
Black immigrants
A separate summer survey of immigrants, presented by Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, found that nearly half of Black immigrants worry that a family member or close friend could be deported.
At an October rally at the Bakersfield Marriott, home care workers with SEIU Local 2015 who fear federal Medicaid cuts to their pay and the people they care for backed Democrats Randy Villegas and Xavier Becerra and vowed to hold them to their promises.
“The way that we hold people accountable is not with our fists. We do it with our ballots,” union President Arnulfo de la Cruz said.
“What checked this administration was the voters,” Fernandez said in closing.
Full national results are available at 2026electionpoll.us.