Democrats are going all out to get black voters into the booths. Will it matter?

At a town-hall meeting on the economy held on September 20th, Velma Hart, the chief financial officer for a veterans’ advocacy organisation, told Barack Obama that she was “exhausted of defending you…and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.” A month later, at another meeting the president had convened with young voters, a college graduate called Adam Hunter pointed out that the unemployment rate had risen despite Mr Obama’s deficit-boosting stimulus package, and asked, “Why should we still support you?” Both Ms Hart and Mr Hunter are black. Ms Hart stated and Mr Hunter implied that they were supporters of Mr Obama in 2008.

Between these two uncomfortable moments for the president, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced that it was increasing to $3m the amount spent on shoring up the black base. This is a record amount for a mid-term election, and may be a sign of deeper worries.

Blacks are among the most reliably Democratic voters. Of the 32 districts in which blacks are a majority or plurality of the population, 31 are represented by Democrats (the outlier is Louisiana’s second district, held by Anh Cao, the only Republican to vote for health-care reform, a vote he later reversed). The last time a Republican took more than 15% of the black vote in a presidential election was in 1960, when 32% of black voters supported Richard Nixon. In 2008 Mr Obama captured 95% of the black vote, and black Americans are still the president’s strongest supporters. A Gallup poll taken earlier this month put his approval rating at 91% among blacks and 36% among whites.

Turning that support into mid-term votes is not easy, but Democrats are trying. A radio ad features Joseph Lowery, a civil-rights veteran who gave the benediction at Mr Obama’s inauguration, telling voters: “In 2008, we changed the guard. This year we must guard the change.” Read the full story at The Economist.