Jackson Confirmation Aside, G.O.P. Sees an Opening With Black Voters

With inflation, war and the pandemic looming larger, Democrats who hope that the browbeating of Ketanji Brown Jackson will rally Black voters behind their candidates may be disappointed.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listened as Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, spoke during her confirmation hearing.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listened as Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, spoke during her confirmation hearing. Credit... T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listened as Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, spoke during her confirmation hearing.

Jonathan Weisman Maya King

April 8, 2022

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The spectacle created by Republican senators with presidential ambitions as they browbeat the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court — after which 47 Republicans voted against her on Thursday — might have seemed like glaring evidence that the G.O.P. had written off the Black vote this November.

Far from it. In rising inflation, stratospheric gas prices, lingering frustrations over Covid and new anxieties over the war in Ukraine, Republicans see a fresh opening, after the Obama and Trump eras, to peel away some Black voters who polls show are increasingly disenchanted with the Biden administration.