Al Sharpton On Three Major Threats to Black Voters in 2026

Midterm elections are right around the corner, and while many Americans might be indifferent about voting, for Black Americans, the stakes are much higher. Since President Donald Trump’s return to office, anti-DEI initiatives and attacks to the civil rights era laws have had Black Americans on edge. Now, Rev. Al Sharpton is laying out everything folks should keep on their minds before hitting the voting booth.

As the founder and president of the National Action Network (NAN), Sharpton met with several politicians, thinkers and church leaders for the NAN annual convention last week. This year’s theme was “Straightening Out Tricks in 2026,” and as Sharpton explained to The Root, there are three main issues impacting Black Americans.

“I think that the serious threat of whether the Supreme Court could come back and rule that race should be taken out as a consideration in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act would kill the Voting Rights Act,” the reverend said. We previously told you the Supreme Court is set to rule on whether Trump’s attempt to axe parts of the historic legislation disobeys the Constitution.

“That would mean they can draw any district lines and if it’s unfair to Blacks– which was the reason you have the Voting Rights Act in the first place– it doesn’t matter,” the civil rights icon continued. This means Black folks in concentrated, urban areas could have the same– or even less– representation compared to sparse areas.

The issue becomes glaring after realizing fewer voting rights protections equals an unfair Congressional balance, similar to what civil rights leader like Sharpton fought against in the ’60s. “They’d have the numbers to do what they want,” Sharpton said referring to the GOP. “And we lose an estimated 30 seats of the Black caucus, which is cutting us in half and ending a lot of our influence. That’s one trick.”

This all comes as the Trump administration continues to push Republicans nation-wide to redraw district lines in favor of the GOP. But as Sharpton explained, the administration’s attack on Black voters doesn’t just stop there.

“The other trick is that they are using this DEI cancellation,” he said. It’s been over a year since Trump signed an executive order banning DEI. While he argued diversity efforts are reverse discrimination, several leaders like Sharpton have called him out.

“No, it is answering discrimination,” he told us. “The only reason you need DEI is because they weren’t diverse.” The concept of DEI isn’t new, but the term grew legs after the killing of several Black Americans– namely Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, who Sharpton delivered a eulogy for in 2020. The racial reckoning sent off shockwaves for corporations to finally give Black consumers and businesses the recognition they deserved, hence the birth of DEI. But Sharpton wants everyone to know that DEI was never the end goal for Black people.

“They came up with DEI. We never called it DEI,” he said. “We asked for fairness and equity. They named something. Now they want to end something they named like we asked for it.” We also told you all about the corporations reversing their DEI initiatives. In response, Black folks have boycotted several stores, including Target, which has significantly lost consumers and revenue since abandoning DEI.

For Sharpton, it’s unclear if DEI will ever be the same as it was in 2021, but that doesn’t matter. “I don’t care what you call it, but you cannot pull back from our community.”


And that brings him to the Affordable Care Act, and how Congress allowed subsidies for the Act to expire, resulting in Black folks faced with sharp healthcare cost.

“It’s almost not mentioned that the Affordable Care Act has expired and that you’ve got people who are having their premiums doubled and tripled,” he said. “They are changing voting. They’re changing the economic arrangement with the Black community, and they’re changing the healthcare while they’ve got us out fighting each other.”