(NewsNation) — With the 2024 election heating up, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are intensifying their efforts to appeal to crucial voting blocs that could sway the outcome.
Biden, seeking to shore up support among a core Democratic constituency, made stops in multiple battleground states over the weekend, including Detroit, to court Black voters.
After stopping at Morehouse College for a commencement speech in Atlanta, Biden is expected to highlight his administration’s policies benefiting the Black community at the NAACP Detroit Branch’s annual ‘Fight for Freedom Fund‘ dinner Sunday night.
Recent polling suggests Biden’s backing among Black voters has slipped in key swing states compared to 2020 when he won 94% of the vote in Detroit, where the population is 78% Black.
“We’ve got a long way to go in this election, but we’re feeling real good because of folks like you,” Biden told a small private gathering before the Detroit speech, suggesting Trump would roll back policies expanding health coverage and college access for Black Americans.
Meanwhile, Trump spent his weekend rallying gun owners, a loyal Republican bloc, at an NRA event in Texas. He urged them to turn out and vote, accusing Biden of “coming after your guns” and claiming the Second Amendment is “very much on the ballot” in November.
The former president secured the NRA’s endorsement after warning the group: “If they get in, our country is going to be destroyed in so many ways, but the Second Amendment will be, it’s under siege.”
Not to be outdone, RFK Jr. hosted his own rally in Aurora, Colorado, as the independent contender polling at 13% nationally aims to qualify for upcoming debates.
“We’ve given them five national polls that show me, including the most recent CNN poll, that has me at 15 percent,” Kennedy said. “So I qualify for the debates.”
The dynamics recall 1992 when Ross Perot briefly led incumbent George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton before ultimately capturing nearly 19% of the vote, highlighting how fortunes can shift in the months before the general election.
Biden’s Detroit visit was his third Michigan stop this year as he seeks to replicate his narrow 3-point statewide win in 2020 that was bolstered by overwhelming support in the largest city. With the state’s outsized role as a presidential bellwether, the campaign efforts there are likely to intensify before November.