CHARLOTTE, NC — More than half of all eligible black voters live in only 8 states across the country. Only two of those are battleground states, North Carolina and Georgia. There were 1.5 million registered black voters in North Carolina during the 2020 election. That’s 20% of the Tar Heel state’s population, but only 68% voted. In the same election, white voters had an 11% higher voter turnout. “The question often is not so much voter registration among African American voters, it’s turnout and that has a lot to do with the enthusiasm for the candidate,” said Scott Huffmon. Huffmon is a political science professor at Winthrop University.  Huffmon explained about 90% of black voters lean left. “We’ve seen what happens when African Americans are engaged, you know, Democrats typically win,” Huffmon said. Caleb Theodros is running unopposed for State Senate District 41 which goes from west Charlotte to Plaza Midwood. He believes part of what helped him win his primary was the strategy to target black voters who have not voted in the past and reach subsets of the African-American community. “I think within black voters is continued to become even more diversified. I mean, with me alone, we’ve been able to reengage sort of specific subset of the African American community. You have Eritrean community and Ethiopian community. That’s a lot more involved,” explained Theodros. Affordable housing, crime and health care are topics that Theodros believes are important to his community. Black voter registration dipped for a time during this election cycle. However, Huffmon said there has been a bump, especially in tipping point states, once Kamal Harris became the Democratic nominee.