Democrats’ ad spending priorities spark outrage as Black-owned media struggles for fair support.
One could make the case that Democrats lost the 2024 election in part because they abandoned the Black Press—the voice of Black America. Black voters, the backbone of the party, walked away in numbers unseen in modern times. At the very moment when all Americans—Black, white, Latino, and others—are called to stand against authoritarianism, Democrats have shown not courage but cowardice, not gratitude but contempt for their own base.
The numbers tell the story. House Democrats proudly announced a $3 million ad blitz hitting Republicans over tariffs and the looming shutdown. The DNC spent big on a paid campaign blanketing Wisconsin newspapers to attack Elon Musk during a state Supreme Court election. They rolled out a five-figure ad buy targeting Tennessee Republicans with Epstein-related attacks. The DCCC unleashed a national ad campaign aimed at Latino, Black, and AANHPI voters, blaming Republicans for back-to-school prices, followed by another round of ads—its first national digital buy of the 2026 cycle—hammering Republicans for jeopardizing rural hospitals. Millions for consultants, millions for TV, millions for newspaper spreads in majority-white outlets. But when it comes to the Black Press of America—a network of 200 Black-owned newspapers and media companies, many run by Black women—Democrats turn their pockets inside out.
This is no small network. The Black Press has the potential to reach more than 30 million readers, viewers, and subscribers every week through its newspapers, websites, social platforms, and daily broadcasts. It has never asked for handouts, only a fair shake. Yet, despite all their boasts of diversity, Democrats have invested nothing close to the millions they shovel elsewhere. And this betrayal comes at a historic moment: the Black Press is approaching its 200th anniversary in 2027. Founded in 1827 by John B. Russwurm and Samuel Cornish with the bold declaration, “We wish to plead our own cause. For too long others have spoken for us,” the Black Press has carried that mission through every trial of Black America. Yet today, as it struggles financially to reach that milestone, the very party that owes its survival to Black voters has turned its back.
During the pandemic, Democrats flocked to the Black Press’ daily broadcast, Let It Be Known. They wanted to be platformed, wanted their voices carried into Black homes. But once they were elected, the same voices that begged for space disappeared. What remains is foul lip service, the kind that sounds no different from Trump’s contempt for diversity. The insult is deeper when measured against history. Frederick Douglass thundered through The North Star. Ida B. Wells laid bare the horror of lynching through the Memphis Free Speech. The Chicago Defender carried the voices of the Great Migration and showed the mutilated body of Emmett Till. The Afro American chronicled Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King Jr.
When Tulsa burned, white mobs destroyed Black newspapers to smother the truth. When Dr. King wrote from Birmingham Jail, it was the Black Press that carried his words. When the Wilmington Ten were caged, it was the Black Press that refused to look away. And today, the torch is still burning. April D. Ryan is today’s Alice Dunnigan. Lauren Burke is today’s Ethel Payne. Sam P.K. Collins is a modern-day Marcus Garvey. HBCU students have both interned and currently work full-time with the Black Press. The Black Press is not dead history—it is a living force.
So, let the question be asked plainly: if the RNC wrote checks tomorrow to the Black Press, would Democrats call us sellouts? Would they smear us while continuing to funnel millions into papers and platforms that do not speak to our communities?
The truth is this: Democrats have betrayed the very institution that has carried them time and again. They can spend $3 million to flood swing districts, or blanket Wisconsin papers with anti-Musk ads, or pump cash into flashy social media buys—but they cannot find equity for the Black Press. That betrayal is why the party lost ground in 2024. And unless Democrats reckon with their disdain for the Black Press, they will learn again in 2026 and 2028 what they began to taste already: abandonment at the ballot box, silence from the very people whose voices they have chosen to ignore.
#BlackPressMatters #MediaEquity #DemocratsAndMedia
