Republicans at national convention reach out to Black voters on social and economic issues

Republicans have not “been as good at marketing the success that has come out of this conservative movement as we should,” U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, speaking to other Black delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, wanted to reassure them of one thing — they are not alone. 

“As African-American conservatives, sometimes it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one here,” Scott said at a Wednesday event dedicated to honoring the Black delegates at the RNC. “You are not alone. There are thousands, if not millions all around the country who believe like we believe, pray like we believe, do what we know that needs to be done. If we keep doing, the people will follow.”

It came the day after Scott, who is the only Black Republican in the Senate, took the stage of the RNC to declare that America is “not a racist country” in a passionate speech in support of former President Donald Trump.  Amber Rose, a biracial model and rapper, also said on stage that former President Donald Trump isn’t racist and called Republicans “my people.” That message is representative of Republicans’ efforts throughout the week to expand their efforts to find Black voters who may agree with them on social and economic issues and get them to vote for Republicans this year.

Black voters have represented a reliable base of support for Democrats for decades. According to a recent report from Pew Research Center, 83% of Black voters in the U.S. are Democrats or lean Democratic, while 12% align with Republicans. In a swing state like Wisconsin, the efforts to win more Black voters could be particularly impactful.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who built a broad umbrella of support that helped him win four terms in office, said the party hasn’t done enough to reach voters in Milwaukee and Madison, including those in Black communities. 

Thompson said that he has always gone out of his way to connect with Black voters, and the effort is part of the reason that he was able to win Milwaukee County three times.  “When I first ran, I used to get out into the Black churches,” Thompson said on Tuesday. According to a 2017 report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Thompson didn’t sweep primarily Black voting wards when he ran, but he did significantly outpace Republicans who have been on ballots in other years.

“You can’t govern unless you win…,” Thompson said, noting that if the party can cut down  the number of votes going to Democrats, Republicans could win. “That means we have to go into Madison, go into Milwaukee, get those votes.”

Milwaukee County is where nearly 60% of the state’s Black population resides. Republican leaders habitually treat the city of Milwaukee as a punching bag, withholding state funds and attacking Milwaukee in the state Legislature (Trump continued that tradition, calling Milwaukee  a “horrible city” ahead of the RNC). The Wisconsin GOP also has a recent history of attempting to suppress the votes of Black Milwaukee residents, including through voter ID laws and targeted ads meant to discourage voting. 

Wisconsin’s Republican delegation to the RNC turned to Scott this week and to  other Black Republicans to explore ways the party can reach Black voters in the swing state.

Ben Carson, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Trump administration and a neurosurgeon, spoke to the Wisconsin delegation Tuesday, in a speech that accused public schools of trying to “indoctrinate” children on gender issues and undermining the traditional family. During his speech, Carson also criticized people who are trying to “denigrate” the nation’s founding fathers by saying they were “horrible people” because they owned slaves.

“Slavery was terrible, don’t get me wrong… but are we unique in having slavery?” Carson said. “No.” 

Minnesota state Rep. Walter Hudson, another Black Republican who attended the Wisconsin delegation breakfast on Tuesday, said conservative social messages resonate with some Black voters. 

Hudson said it’s important from an electoral standpoint for the party to expand its support because it doesn’t hurt to have more people voting Republican. But more than this, he said that it’s important from a cultural perspective that “Republicans have something to offer and something of value to the Black community.”

Hudson recalled attending a two-hour church service on the northside of Minneapolis. The message of the sermon, he said, was “conservative as hell.” 

“It was family, manhood, responsibility, getting your life right, testimony from people who [said] ‘I was once in these streets gang banging and doing drugs and then I found Jesus and now I’m mentoring youth,’” Hudson said.

Hudson said winning over voters requires the correct approach. 

“I’ve been around long enough to see different iterations of this minority outreach,” Hudson said, while gesturing air quotes. “It has not been well conceived of in the past because they were approaching it from the wrong attitude. They were approaching it from that… prescriptive attitude of ‘we’re gonna go in there and tell them what they should think.” He said that includes the mentality that Black people need advice like,  “If fathers would just stay home with their kids…” and “If they would just get jobs.” 

Hudson grew up apolitical in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and said he had his political awakening in high school when he started listening to Rush Limbaugh who he’d heard was “provocative” and “funny.” The radio host, who died in 2021, was known for insulting liberals and pushing of American conservatism towards the populist right, leading to the rise of Trump. 

“None of the things he was saying fit the exaggeration of how it was described. … What he was saying was, in fact, in line with my own kind of personal values, and the way I’d been raised, and that’s kind of when I realized that I was conservative,” Hudson said. 

Hudson said he tries to approach voters with a similar curiosity to see where commonalities may lie, and that this is the approach that Republicans need to adopt. 

“We need to go to the Black community with what our existing coalition thinks, take the risk of being inquisitive and asking the question, ‘Well what is it that you actually value? How are you actually being failed? What kind of policies would help you?” Hudson said. “What you’ll discover is opportunities to create kind of a Venn diagram where… you might be able to find some crossover and if you can find that crossover, that becomes the link in the chain that can pull people along.” 

Beyond social conservatism, economic policies are something that could prove a point of connection. Scott of South Carolina visited the WisGOP Black Community Center — an office space on the corner of N. Dr. MLK Jr. Drive and E. North Ave. in Milwaukee that was established in 2021 — to discuss economic opportunities created by the Republican party. He was joined on a panel by Milwaukee Alderman Russell W. Stamper II, developer Kaylan Haywood Sr., Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Committee member Will Martin and RPW vice chairman Gerard Randall.

One of those successes, he said, came from the Economic Opportunity Zones program that was established by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed into law under Trump. Scott said the goal was not to invest government funding into these areas, but rather to “provide a framework” using federal tax incentives to encourage private parties to invest in economically disadvantaged communities. There are 120 designated Opportunity Zones across Wisconsin.

“The goal isn’t simply to lift African Americans out of poverty. The goal is to lift all people out of poverty,” Scott said. “It just so happens that disproportionately those are African-American communities.” 

Republicans have not “been as good at marketing the success that has come out of this conservative movement as we should,” Scott said. One of the messages that he thinks needs to be delivered is that the country currently has the “most inclusive” economy that he’s seen in his lifetime. Scott launched the Great Opportunity PAC with the goal of sharing that message to Black voters.

Whether Republicans’ efforts to win more Black voters will be successful is yet to be seen. 

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a DNC Biden delegate, told the Examiner he has  doubts about the extent to which the WIGOP Community Center is connected to the community it’s in.

“I mean, go talk to those neighbors. I guarantee they would say that that is not necessarily a community center because they probably have never been into it themselves,” Crowley said. GOP centers that aim to reach communities of color haven’t always been successful in Milwaukee. One that was dedicated to outreach to Latino communities closed in 2022, though the party has since announced that it plans to open another one in August.

When it comes to courting Black voters in Milwaukee, Crowley also said bringing in Scott “is not going to be the way to do it.” 

“Especially when Sen. Tim Scott comes to Milwaukee during the convention [and] says something along the lines that racism doesn’t exist in America, while forgetting that he’s in probably one of the most segregated communities in the entire country,” Crowley continued. “I know that there are, not just Democrats, but Republicans who happen to be Black who would say not so fast.”

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