I have often said that black voters are the most disrespected of all voter groups — taken for granted by Democrats and ignored by Republicans.
Of course, no one is forcing blacks to put all of their political eggs into one Democrat basket.
Remember the highly touted 2013 “Growth and Opportunity Project Report” of the Republican National Committee (RNC), which did an “autopsy” of the Romney debacle with minorities in 2012?
Discussing the report, then RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, who became Trump’s first Chief of Staff, told the media that the party did a “lousy job” of marketing itself and boldly stated, “…. I know everything isn’t going to change in one year. If we don’t start now we’re not going to have any more success in four years, eight years, or twelve years.”
Well, in the three years leading up to 2016, and today, the GOP establishment and most of its candidates are still doing a “lousy job” of marketing to black voters with meaningful messages — except for Trump.
Unlike the GOP “Establishment,” its donors, and most GOP candidates for national and statewide office, Trump actually touched on issues of deep concern to blacks:
• The scourge of urban violence in Chicago and other cities.
• How illegal immigration negatively impacts black employment. • And, the need for school choice for parents of children trapped in poor inner-city schools.
And, unlike most Republican candidates, in primary and general elections, Trump actually asked for their votes. Remember when he asked: “What do you have to lose?”
It turned out that blacks had much to gain with Trump’s election. As my Newsmax Insider colleague Deroy Murdock recently wrote, blacks are “increasingly profiting”
from Trump’s economic boom — an Aug. 7 NAACP poll found that 21 percent of black registered voters approve of Trump’s job performance; and, a Rasmussen tracking survey found that 36 percent of black voters “gave the president thumbs up, compared to 19 percent a year ago.”
Murdock went on to point out that: “July’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for black Americans was 6.6 percent the lowest on record and significantly below the July 2016 Obama rate of 8.4 percent. Trump’s current black-teen jobless rate is 19.9 percent. Two Julys ago, Obama’s analogous figure was 25.7 percent.”
He quoted White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying that, since Trump took office, he “has created 700,000 new jobs for African-Americans” concluding that President Trump, in his first year and a half, has already tripled the 195,000 that President Obama did in eight years.
That’s quite a story! Florida as a good example.
In Florida, there are over 60,000 registered black Republicans and nearly 285,000 black NPA’s. One would think that in a state which historically has close elections, any statewide Republican candidate would go for every single vote.
For example, in the 2010 GOP primary, outsider and now Governor Rick Scott, in a major upset, defeated GOP establishment candidate and then Attorney General Bill McCollum by 38,000 votes. In the general election, Scott, who ran with former State Representative Jennifer Carroll, who is black, in another upset, defeated Democrat opponent Alex Sink 48.9 percent to 47.7 percent — by over 62,000 votes.
In both cases, every vote counted and Scott and Carroll’s estimated six percent of the black vote played a role in that victory — whether Republicans admitted it or not. Scott went on to double that margin in 2014 winning 12 percent of the black vote mainly because of his advocacy of choice in schools and advocacy of jobs. Every vote counted.
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