A quarter of Black men voted Trump in 2024. Tuesday, one in 10 voted Republican for the House.

Black men, the group Republicans spent two years courting, mostly went home on Tuesday. About 1 in 10 backed a Republican House candidate, according to the AP Voter Poll. In 2024, roughly a quarter voted for Donald Trump.

Overall, about 9 in 10 Black voters chose a Democrat for the House, up from about 8 in 10 who backed Kamala Harris two years ago. “Black voters, particularly Black men, were another group where Trump’s 2024 gains didn’t stick,” the AP wrote. Black women also moved: about 9 in 10 voted Democratic, up 9 to 10 points from 2024.

The shift was sharpest in Georgia. About 90% of Black men there voted for Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor. Harris got about three-quarters of them in 2024, a 15-point swing.

The AP surveyed more than 100,000 voters in all 50 states from Oct. 19 to Nov. 3, with a margin of error of 0.6 percentage points. NBC News exit polls, a separate survey, put Black voters at 9% of the electorate and 90% Democratic, with Black men at 86% Democratic and 12% Republican, and Black women at 93% and 6%. Different pollsters, different methods, the same picture.

One caution: the 2024 and 2026 figures compare a presidential race with House races, and midterm electorates are smaller and older. The AP also found the same pull toward Democrats among young voters, Hispanic voters, moderates and lower-income voters, so Black voters were part of a national move, not the whole of it.

That is the point. Republicans made a play for Black men with promises on jobs and prices. Since then Congress has cut Medicaid and SNAP, and Republican legislatures have redrawn House maps across the South in ways that shrink Black representation. Whatever voters’ reasons, the returns say the pitch did not survive the record.

Democrats now hold the House, with Hakeem Jeffries set to become its first Black speaker. A party that gets 90% of a community’s vote owes it more than a thank-you. The test comes with the first budget fight over Medicaid and the Voting Rights Act, both of which Black voters were told this election would be decided on.