Michael Steele’s tenure as the head of the Republican National Committee from 2009 to earlier this year, drew attention for his focus on building the visibility of blacks in the Republican party. Aiming for the youth vote, he even turned to hip-hop to draw in a younger crowd. But his efforts likely fell on deaf ears.
Back In 2004, then President George W, Bush made some inroads with more conservative African-American voters by appealing to black evangelicals on controversial social issues like same-sex marriage.
In 2008, John McCain failed to capitalize on Bush’s momentum with black voters. Not until the summer before November’s election did McCain specifically address black needs with his appearance at the NAACP Convention in Cincinnati. There, he was embraced by black conservatives and members of the National Black Republican Association, including Dr. Alveda C. King, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s niece.
In this election cycle, the Republicans’ efforts to court the black vote is nowhere to be seen. There’s nearly no evidence that GOP presidential candidates are even the least bit concerned with courting the black vote. A visit to their campaign websites reveals no direct outreach efforts, either to blacks or Latinos.
The closest example is a video produced for Mitt Romney’s campaign that attacks President Barack Obama on jobs. The video uploaded to YouTube in June shows a young black man holding up a sign that says, “Where are the jobs?” The inscription “Derrick Stands With Mitt,” is written below. The video also features a Latina single mom.
Click here to view a Grio slideshow of influential black conservatives in America
A glance at the site of Texas Rep. Ron Paul shows a link under the “Issues” headline to his position on civil rights. Clicking that link takes you to Paul’s critical comments about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His words to Congress in 2004 are reprinted, with the salient points in dark bold lettering, “Relations between the races have improved despite, not because of, the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” it says.
None of the other candidate websites, including Herman Cain, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich make mention of African-Americans or building support within the black community.
For blacks who are longtime Republicans, it’s no surprise. “Outreach [towards African-Americans] by the party, generally speaking, is pretty bad,” says Clarence McKee, a prominent Florida Republican. “Every vote’s important.”
But, McKee, a political media consultant, and others also blame blacks for sticking with one party affiliation, and not voting in large numbers. “Republicans are assuming blacks are going to go Democrat, so they don’t reach out,” he says.
The fact that a majority of African-Americans, who represent around 13 percent of the U.S. population, vote Democrat leaves Republicans with little to hope for in terms of changing their minds during election time.
Levi Williams, a Florida corporate attorney and another prominent black Republican, sees the dedication to voting Democrat as a flaw in how politics are supposed to be played in a multiparty system. “We’re the only group of people that [votes majority Democrat], that is not political mastery. That’s a new form of political slavery.”
According to a study released by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 84 percent of black registered voters want Obama to be re-elected, while 7 percent of black voters want a Republican to win.
Some Republicans think that the important votes to court are among the white independents, women, youth and Hispanics. Leaving the black vote a dwindling slice of the overall voting pie.
“Every year, our numbers become so marginal compared to other groups,” says Williams, who used to work as lead counsel for the Broward Republican Executive Committee. “The new supermajority will be Latinos, which leaves the African-American community behind Latinos and whites,” he says. Still, Williams believes blacks need to better leverage their voting power like other minority groups, including gays. It’s not about sticking to one party, but choosing the candidate who will “deliver the best outcome.”
With President Obama’s approval rating dipping in a recent poll, Republicans aren’t showing much visible effort in going after his black voting base. But that’s not to say that there aren’t groups looking to mix Republican ideals and court African-American political participation. The National Black Republican Association is one such organization that’s been around for several years. Chaired by Frances Rice and based in Sarasota, Fl, the site says it seeks to “return black Americans to their Republican Party roots by enlightening them about how Republicans fought for their freedom and civil rights.”
The site highlights prominent black Republicans such as Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll and South Carolina Rep. Tim Scott. It features essays about Martin Luther King Jr and his connections to the Republican Party.
While it stays away from featuring any of the current crop of presidential candidates on its pages, it does express the idea that African-Americans can be proud to be Republican and part of the party. Where GOP candidates are lacking in their outreach to African-Americans, stalwarts such as Rice are opening the gates to the party.
The GOP candidates debate will be broadcast live today on MSNBC, at 8 p.m. (ET), with NBC’s Brian Williams and POLITICO Editor and Chief John Harris moderating.