Warning to Democrats: Black Republicans are Organizing

Buoyed by recent media attention and speeches to African American groups by President Bush and other high ranking officials and politicians, African American Republicans are intensifying their efforts to bring more Blacks to the GOP.  New organizations are joining existing groups in this effort.  The most recently formed organization is the National Black Republican Association (NBRA).  It should be closely watched.  While I don’t think it will lead to significant change at the ballot box, just enough votes in just enough places around the country could be problematic for Democrats.  For that reason, I do think liberals and progressives should take note of what’s brewing on the Black Right and avoid the arrogance and condescension that can, all too easily, lead them to ignore what is happening.  To do so might prove costly to a progressive movement that is in trouble at the ballot box and send the Democrats into oblivion.

The NBRA is part of a long lineage of Black conservative organizations and think tanks since the start of the Reagan Revolution that try to influence African American public opinion toward the GOP.  Every few years or so, Black Republicans get together to build an organization they hope will create a wave of support for the GOP in African American communities around the nation.  These regular attempts to grow Black Republicans reflect two realities:  first, there is the continued perception, contrary evidence notwithstanding, that a movement of Black conservatives is ready to be motivated but simply lacks leadership and, second, the organizations that do come along ultimately fail to provide that leadership, are unable to sustain themselves, and fade in significance.

The NBRA had its first formal meetings in mid-August and see their mission in part as serving as a resource in the Black community on Republican ideals and principles.  It’s goal is to increase the number of African Americans who vote Republican and provide networking opportunities for Black Republicans nationwide.  It takes a decidedly different approach from many of its predecessors in that it is focused on building grass roots support, without much interference from Washington elites.  One member told me that the traditional Republican “top-down” approach is a failure and that national Republicans don’t yet understand that Black support for the GOP has to be built, first, at the neighborhood level.

This organization, like so many others before it, has a high hill to climb.  President Bush received 11 percent of the Black vote in 2004; a paltry 2 percentage point increase from 2000.  Black support for GOP House and Senate candidates is, more often than not, in the high single or low double digits.  Things are worse when you consider Black Republican office seekers.  A total of sixty-four African American Republicans captured their party’s nomination for the U.S. House or Senate during the 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004 congressional election cycles combined (this figure includes multiple counting for candidates who ran more than one election cycle).  With the exception of now-retired Representative J.C. Watts, most haven’t come close to winning.  Fifty-two of the sixty-four nominees (81%) lost by at least twenty-five percentage points.  Add to this Black opposition to the Iraq War and historically low funding support for these groups and one doesn’t have to make much of a leap to conclude that organizations dedicated to bringing more African Americans to the GOP are spitting in the wind. 

Conversely, though, it this reveals an era that may be pregnant with opportunity for the GOP.  Any increase it gets, as minuscule as it may be, can be spun as an improvement that puts pressure on the Democrats to expend more resources.  Democrats are then forced to pay more attention to its most loyal group of voters–African Americans, which prevents the party from making inroads in other segments of the electorate.

Democrats better focus on what’s going on; failing to do so can ensure minority status in Congress for years to come.

© Michael K. Fauntroy
August 19, 2005