Former President Barack Obama has already begun campaigning for Harris, pressuring black men in particular to support her. Obama also has an event scheduled for Friday evening in Tuscon, Arizona.

However, next week’s events will mark the first time former first lady Michelle Obama appears on the campaign trail for Harris after giving a crowd-rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in August.

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Recent polling from the New York Times/Siena College showed Harris trailing President Joe Biden’s 2020 black voter support by 10 points, and by 15 points among black men specifically.

Yet Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison sought to quell those fears during a Friday “Souls to the Polls” press call with civil rights activist Martin Luther King III, Drum Major Institute president Arndrea Waters King, and Bishop Leah Daughtry.

“This is the beginning of a conversation, and it’s partly because … as the vice president has been going around the country having conversations with black men and black women about what are some of the obstacles and the barriers that they have in terms of living their American dream,” Harrison said of Harris’s opportunity agenda for black men. “And what this agenda really focuses on is health, wealth, and freedom.”

Harris’s economic proposals targeting black men include providing 1 million loan cancellations up to $20,000, increasing the tax deduction for small businesses to $50,000, investing in black male teacher mentorships, and legalizing recreational marijuana.

In contrast, Democratic allies painted Trump as hostile to black voters as polls show him making inroads with the demographic.

“As a so-called businessman, Trump was sued for refusing to rent to black families as a landlord,” King said. “He took out a full-page ad calling for the execution of the Central Park Five. This is what Trump has always been about: hate, divisiveness, and self-interest.”

“There is so much at stake in this election for communities of color, especially black women. Trump assures us that he will be a protector of women. The truth is, Trump is a threat. Trump proudly overturned Roe v. Wade,” added Waters King.

Trump has previously cited funding for historically black colleges and a criminal justice reform bill he signed as president to court African American voters, while he has relied on surrogates including Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit.

Harris has recently stepped up her media interactions targeting black men. On Tuesday, Harris traveled to Detroit, Michigan, where she took questions during a live radio town hall with Charlamagne tha God of The Breakfast Club.

“I was the most progressive prosecutor in California on marijuana cases and would not send people to jail for simple possession of weed,” she said, discussing her past record. “And as vice president have been a champion for bringing marijuana down on the schedule. So instead of it being ranked up there with heroin, we bring it down.”

The vice president also sat down for an interview with the Shade Room, another outlet with a majority black audience, and before that, Harris joined former NBA stars Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes on their All the Smoke podcast to discuss her basketball interests and policy issues including gun violence.

The outreach to black voters continues over the weekend as Harris, and running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), will attend church services in battleground states on Sunday. Walz will visit Victorious Believers Ministries in Saginaw, Michigan, while Harris will visit New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia.

Harris will also sit down for an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton on Sunday during his MSNBC show.

Black voters remain the Democratic Party’s most loyal voting bloc and a key segment of the coalition that helped elect Biden four years ago. Harris will need their support once again if she is to prevail against Trump next month. Democrats are adamant they can stem Trump’s peeling away of black voter.

“As black voters go, this election will be decided. We are the backbone of the Democratic Party, and we will have Kamala Harris’s back in this election,” said Daughtry, pastor of the House of the Lord Church.