Many Black voters have done everything asked of them. They registered, studied the candidates, and showed up election after election.
Now, with the Nov. 3 midterm weeks away, a growing number are asking whether it is worth doing again.
Those who work closest with these voters say the hesitation is not apathy. It comes from watching promises go unkept, district lines redrawn, and bills climb no matter who wins.
“Just because voters have been labeled as disengaged doesn’t mean they don’t care,” said Pure Justice Senior Field Organizer Joy Davis, a Houston nonprofit that organizes residents around criminal justice reform and economic equity. “The campaign promises are not kept.”
In Harris County, 42.9% of registered voters cast ballots in the 2022 midterm, compared with 65.9% in the 2020 presidential election, according to county data.
“No one shows up for us”
Some residents dislike every name on the ballot. Others are sitting out on purpose after the March primary when U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a favorite among Black voters, lost the Democratic U.S. Senate race to state Rep. James Talarico. Many still point to Kamala Harris’ 2024 loss.
“They’re asking for our vote, and they’re asking for our support, and we give them that,” Davis said. “But when it’s our turn, no one shows up for us.”
People feel ignored. For years, they have pressed officials about illegal dumping and damaged streets.
“They’re asking for our vote, and they’re asking for our support, and we give them that. But when it’s our turn, no one shows up for us.”
Joy Davis, senior field organizer, Pure Justice
“We need green spaces, we need health care, we need more housing options, and no one is listening to us,” Davis said. “But people want us to vote for them.”
Redistricting has deepened the doubt. In 2025, Texas adopted a congressional map designed to give Republicans five more seats, pushing U.S. Rep. Al Green into a runoff he lost in May. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the Voting Rights Act’s main protection against maps that dilute Black voting power.
“These folks only come around during elections, and the politicians will say anything to get elected, and nothing changes for people like me,” said Davis, repeating what residents tell her. “So then why should I vote if this is happening anyway?”
A long record of broken promises
Christine LeVeaux-Haley, a political science professor in the University of Houston Honors College who studies Black electoral politics, said that distrust has deep roots. She recalled how local politicians once drove trucks of chickens into Black neighborhoods and handed them out to families in exchange for votes.
“That’s the last time they would see that alderman or that city council member,” LeVeaux-Haley said. “So this has been the track record for Black people.”
Black voters hold power because they vote as a bloc, but they rarely have two candidates competing for them.
“Your leverage is either we get out to vote, or we don’t get out to vote,” she said. “Not either we vote for this person, or we vote for that person.”
Black voters have long treated voting as a duty, she said, but federal cuts to diversity programs and government jobs have left many discouraged, and few candidates are courting them this year.
“It’s almost like disillusionment with the political system,” LeVeaux-Haley said. “When that happens, people will not go out to vote.”
When basic needs come first
Carmela Walker, program coordinator and advocacy specialist at the Houston Area Urban League, works to bring those voters back. The league’s Center for Social Justice Education and Advocacy, launched after George Floyd’s murder, tracks legislation, canvases neighborhoods, and produces voter education with Texas Southern and Prairie View A&M universities, including the podcast “The Arc of Democracy: Reading Between the Lines.”
“If you’re paying taxes, why do we still have food deserts?” Walker said. “Why are the roads still not paved?”
Families facing job loss, high gas prices, and rising utility bills have little room for elections. Yet several Texas health and human services agencies face state Sunset review before the 2027 legislative session, and residents can submit public comments to defend the programs they rely on.
“I don’t think folks can concentrate on anything else but the fundamentals,” Walker said. “But what I feel that they don’t recognize is the fact that everything is about the vote, everything.”
She said voters also have work to do between elections. Walker learned how state budgets shape daily life through the Texas Legislative Internship Program, which places students in the Legislature, and now encourages young people to join the Houston Area Urban League Young Professionals.
“We need to get locally engaged, and we need to make sure that we understand the budgets and the appropriations,” Walker said. “So it’s important to know who represents us and to engage with our representatives over and over again.”
That means submitting public comments and attending meetings, even those held during the workday.
“We have to come together because it’s not just a low-propensity problem,” Walker said. “It’s everybody’s problem.”
