As the 2020 presidential race heats up, candidates on both sides of the aisle are scrambling to win the Black vote. The Wall Street Journal recently sat down with a group of African-American voters from across middle Georgia to discuss their wants, needs and concerns heading into this year’s election.
Jon Jackson, a farmer from Baldwin County, typically votes conservative but previously cast his ballot in support of Barack Obama in 2008. Things changed come 2016, and, like many Americans, Jackson was looking for a different type of leadership.
So, he threw his support behind then-candidate Donald Trump.
When asked what was appealing to him about Trump, Jackson said he felt the Republican and Democratic parties had “lost touch” with the American people. For him, Trump was the candidate who would get things done.
“I felt, like many, that hey, we need a bull in the china shop,” he told WSJ reporter Joshua Jamerson. “And I didn’t elect President Trump or support President Trump because he has couth or because he had etiquette. No, I wanted a gangsta in the doggone White House to just wreck shop.”
Jackson, a native of New Jersey who identifies as a “pro-Black conservative,” also spoke on the issue of identity politics and said it’s assumed he’ll vote a certain way or will support certain issues simply because he’s African-American.
The Georgia farmer also was profiled by National Public Radio in a September 2016 segment. The Army veteran also said then that he supported Trump, telling NPR, “We need a bull that’s, like, in a china shop to wreck shop. I’m not happy with our government at all.” However, he recently told WSJ his move to a new city at the time prevented him from actually voting for the now-president in 2016.
During the recent interview, fellow voters also discussed voter suppression, education, lack of diversity in the 2020 presidential race.
Watch more in the video below.
