The main conclusion following a series of focus groups conducted with Black voters in Michigan, Georgia, and Texas is that they want to see President Joe Biden be more assertive overall, and particularly when it comes to student debt relief.

An email dispatch from Navigator Research, the consortium of progressive pollsters that conducted the groups last week, read, “Today’s big takeaway: Black Americans in Georgia, Michigan, and Texas give mixed reviews on Biden; want to see more aggressive action taken, specifically on student loan debt.”

The focus groups included less politically engaged Black Democratic men in Michigan, younger Black Democratic men in Georgia, and younger Black Democratic women in Texas.

Navigator also released polling showing that President Biden’s approval rating with Black Americans has slipped 10 points over the past year to 76%, but among Black voters under 35, it has plummeted 25 points, from 88% to 63%.

Overall, Black voters in the focus groups felt Biden has been neither visible enough nor forceful enough as president. More than 4 in 5 Black Americans said they would like the hear more from Biden.

“If you noticed Trump the last four years and how active he was on camera and off camera with stimulus checks or whether it be this or that, you actually saw him doing work—whether it was good or bad,” said one Michigan man. “But Biden, you don’t even see him at all. What do we know about our wellbeing right now, as far as him being president?”

Black voters also wanted Biden to more aggressively tackle his agenda.

“I feel like Trump had more of an impact, even though I did not like Trump as President. But he had more of an impact than Biden has,” explained a Georgia woman.

“I think Biden needs to put the same pressure [as Trump] behind the ball. He needs to get on the Senate. He needs to get on [Senators] Manchin and Sinema and get whatever he’s trying to get done. He needs to get it passed,” said a Michigan man.

Frustration over Biden’s inaction on student debt relief was also palpable among participants.

“Biden ran on getting rid of student loan debt. So just curious to see what’s going to happen on that,” said a Michigan man.

A Georgia man expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “I really wish he was like putting his foot on student loans because that was his biggest thing on his campaign.”

Another Michigan man said, “It went from $50,000 to $10,000. And now we haven’t heard about either one of them. Now they’ve gotten certain things, forgiven certain loans—the predatory part of it, they got those forgiven. But for the rest of us, we haven’t heard anything else about it.”

Participants also had a strong sense of the way in which student debt relief would improve their lives.

“I read some statistics that a lot of Black educated people that have student loans, they have so much debt that they can’t even qualify for a house, which is my situation,” said a Texas woman. “I make pretty good money, but the house that I want, especially with Texas, the prices are going up, I can’t afford the house that I really want. So I feel like more Black people would be able to purchase homes. And it’ll also help their credit, because there’s some people that can’t afford to pay their student loans.”

Another Texas woman added, “I feel like, in general, it would create a positive money flow. Because we’re not having to put $200, $300 up a month to go towards our student loans. That’s money we’re using to invest in our communities, shop in our communities, or however you choose to spend your money, instead of trying to climb out of debt for trying to learn.”

Student debt relief looms much larger for people of color than for white Americans in polling. Last year, a Civiqs survey found that while only 39% of white voters favored canceling $50,000 in federal student loan debt, fully 83% of Black voters and 69% of Latino voters favored it—demographics that both carry the greatest debt burden and are far more impacted by it. The policy is also broadly popular among younger voters, with 58% of voters aged 18 to 34 supporting the cancelation of $50,000 in federal student loan debt.

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