Rudy Cash, a 19-year-old food server, voted in a presidential election for the first time on Tuesday.
Mr. Cash lives in Pennsylvania, a swing state. Growing up, he said, he heard opinions from both sides of the political divide: His father was a Democrat, and his mother was a Republican.
But on this Election Day, he opted to cast his ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris. “For me as a Black man, I just want to protect my civil rights,” he said.
Ms. Harris made history as the first Black woman to lead a major party into a presidential election, but she has not made her identity a centerpiece of her campaign. At polling stations across the United States, Black voters cited a range of issues informing their decisions, including the economy, reproductive rights, criminal justice and the character of former President Donald J. Trump.
“I can’t stand it for another four years,” Darnesha Allen, 34, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., said of the possibility of a second Trump term.
Her husband, Kendall Allen, 38, agreed — but he said he suspected that the Trump campaign’s efforts to reach young Black men had worked, at least somewhat. Polling last month suggested that while the vast majority of Black voters supported Ms. Harris, she was on track to receive less support from Black men than President Biden did four years ago.
Mr. Allen thought that voters who gravitated to Mr. Trump were being shortsighted. “I think he wants to become a dictator and get rid of the Constitution and get rid of re-elections,” he said.
Nicole Beck, a Black stay-at-home mother in Arizona, said she had been unsure about her vote until she learned that her cleaning lady supported Mr. Trump. Ms. Beck, 36, had already been upset that the cost of a trip to the grocery store had risen to around $200.
“If our cleaning lady is with Trump? If she’s not mad at the guy for all the things he’s said?” she said, to the mild astonishment of her husband, Mendel, as they stood outside of a Phoenix voting center.
In Flint, Mich., Tuesday was the first time Dartanion Edwards, 36, had voted for any president; he was in prison for more than a decade before being exonerated two years ago. He described himself as apolitical, adding that his mother, Gina Edwards, had encouraged him to accompany her to the polls.
Ms. Edwards, 61, said that she would never vote for Mr. Trump. “He’s a divider,” she said. But her son was not so sure.
“Trump lets you know who he is,” Mr. Edwards said. Still, he added, his friends worried about whether another Trump victory would embolden racists. “That’s a real issue in my community,” he said.
Later, when he was asked to reveal his ballot-box decision, Mr. Edwards would not say.
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