A Record Number of Black Republicans Are Running for Office. They're Revolutionizing the GOP | Opinion

[Valin]

Newsweek

Jeff Charles

June 14 2022

A record number of Black Republican candidates are running for congressional office this year. The National Republican Congressional Committee counted 81 African American candidates running under the GOP banner in 72 congressional districts in 2022. This is more than a 50 percent increase over the 2020 election cycle. And if the GOP knows what's good for it, this will be the start of a new era in right-wing politics.

This new development comes after decades during which the GOP struggled to attract minorities into its ranks—both minority voters as well as minority candidates. The Republican Party, which saw its support among Black Americans begin its descent shortly after Reconstruction, stopped making concerted efforts to regain Black support by the 1960s. President Richard Nixon, who had a "Black Cabinet," was the last Republican president to make a concerted push to win over Black voters. Since then, the party got by making milquetoast overtures to the Black community, almost as if they were merely checking a box.

But now, in the [bb]*[/b]post-Trump era, it appears the GOP is beginning to embrace a new strategy, one that includes supporting minority and female candidates to appeal to a broader swath of voters. One of the lessons the party seems to have learned of late is that representation matters. And in a movement that purports to eschew identity politics, it appears that at least some in the leadership understand that one crucial part of winning over Black voters, in particular, is to make sure they see people in the party who look like them.

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*Post Trump Era? I would bet more than 3 cents on that.

[Valin]

Jan 31, 2024
The author shares how Black Republican leaders have evolved over time and Sen. Tim Scott’s recent endorsement of Donald Trump.

 

2 words Thomas Sowell