Republicans have big plans to woo Black voters in 2020 presidential race
RNC Chairwoman, Ronna Romney McDaniel dangles Donald Trump's economic strides as a carrot for Black people
The Republican National Committee is aiming to win over Black voters ahead of the 2020 presidential campaign season by doing outreach.
The Republican National Committee is aiming to win over Black voters ahead of the 2020 presidential campaign season by pointing at the nation’s upwardly moving economy as an incentive for minorities to give the GOP another look.
President Trump has made accomplishments that expand economic opportunities for minorities, RNC Chairwoman, Ronna Romney McDaniel, told The Washington Free Beacon.
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“Look at the Obama administration and the unemployment rate in the African-American community under President Barack Obama, the stagnant wages, and then [contrast that with] what President Trump has done,” McDaniel told the Free Beacon at the annual TrailBlazer Awards ceremony last Wednesday. The event was started by former RNC chairman Michael Steele to honor Black History Month to highlight the achievements of African-American Republican leaders.
Trump has gone beyond the traditional GOP base to expand economic opportunities. According to McDaniel, Trump’s tax reform has created more than 5 million new jobs, which has caused unemployment rates in African-American communities to decrease to 5.9 percent. The RNC chair attributes the tax cuts, along with efforts to spur economic development through Trump’s opportunity zone initiative, to boost small business ownership among African-American entrepreneurs.
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According to The Washington Free Beacon, the Trump administration also takes credit for increasing funding for school choice programs for low-income families by more than $42 million since 2017. Additionally, Trump has reportedly increased funding for historically black colleges and universities by as much as 14 percent, McDaniel said, and extended more than $300 million in loan forgiveness to HBCUs after weather-related natural disasters.
But even larger than this was the bipartisan work Trump achieved with criminal justice reform, according to McDaniel. In December, Congress passed the FIRST STEP Act which shortens mandatory jail minimums for nonviolent drug offenses and tackled the federal three-strikes rule that historically has disproportionately impacted minorities.
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“I think it’s a way for the president to tout that he delivered on a promise that had been made by many others, including President Obama, in a bipartisan way,” McDaniel said, according to The Washington Free Beacon. “Recognizing that these mandatory sentences for nonviolent crimes were started under the Clinton administration and adversely affected minority communities, pulling families apart, keeping people incarcerated, and not able to contribute to society—people that have so much more to give.”
During the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton received 88 percent of the African-American vote, according to the newspaper – which were lower than the 93 percent Obama commanded in the 2012 reelection.
While political scientists tried to explain the discrepancy in 2016 was because of a decrease in overall turnout among African-American voters, the RNC says Trump received a higher share of the African-American vote than Romney did. This is why he was able to become the first Republican to carry Michigan since 1988, according to McDaniel.
“The African-American vote was critical for President Trump in winning Michigan in 2016 and I think part of the party’s infrastructure was very helpful,” the chairwoman said. “As Michigan party chair I had offices open for three years in Detroit, we engaged in the community, but also we had a candidate in President Trump who campaigned in Detroit.”
McDaniel said Trump went to Flint and other areas typically ignored by Republicans and it paid off big.
Trump reportedly received 15,000 more votes in Wayne County—where Detroit is located—than Romney did in 2012. Trump still lost Wayne County to Clinton, but those extra votes helped him beat Clinton statewide by more than 10,000 votes.
