Black Republicans celebrate unity at RNC amid challenges persuading voters

MILWAUKEE — Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) was visibly amped up as he spoke before a crowd and talked about Black voters joining the Republican Party in recent years at an event celebrating Black delegates during the Republican National Convention this week.

“As African American conservatives, sometimes it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one,” Scott, one of former president Donald Trump’s most active surrogates, said to the diverse crowd of a few hundred attendees. “Anyone else feel that way?”

Many in the crowd emphatically yelled out: “Yes!”

“You are not the only one,” Scott went on, echoing the larger convention theme of expanding the party and urging unity. “If we keep doing, the people will follow.”

Scott’s remarks at the event, hosted by the Black Republican Mayors Association at a venue less than two miles from the convention, embodied the camaraderie Black conservatives here say they have long sought within the Republican Party as they work to increase their representation.

Outside this convention, these delegates are part of a decided minority, as Black voters have historically and overwhelmingly backed Democratic candidates. And selling Black voters on a Republican presidential nominee whose history of incendiary, at times racist, comments and actions on the campaign trail has alienated minorities has made the task of expansion a difficult challenge. But in interviews with nearly a dozen Black delegates here, many downplayed accusations of racism against Trump and described elation as they convened with fellow Black conservatives from across the country to corral around Trump, their party’s nominee, lauding his efforts to reach Black voters.

“I just respond: ‘Stay in your lane. Whoever you feel that you need to vote for, you’re not gonna change my view. You’re not going to change my vote,’” said Ricardo St. Louis-Franklin, 41, a delegate from California, who doesn’t engage when people criticize Trump as racist, saying they’re entitled to their opinions.

Building up Black support undoubtedly remains a challenge for Trump and the Republican Party, while President Biden is trying to lock up his backing among the bloc that helped fuel his candidacy in 2020. A New York Times-Siena Poll published early this month found 79 percent of Black likely voters backing Biden and 14 percent planning to vote for Trump. In 2020, exit polls found Biden won 87 percent of Black voters to Trump’s 12 percent.

Many Black Americans have also taken offense at Trump’s crude efforts to win over Black voters this election cycle, including his repeated suggestion that Black voters can relate to his criminal indictments and his mug shot. The former president has a track record of making inflammatory comments relating to race, such as saying there were “many fine people” on both sides after a deadly white-supremacist riot in Charlottesville in 2017, calling countries like Haiti and African nations “shithole countries” while in the White House, and recently accusing immigrants of taking “Black jobs.”

As he stood by the bar at the event, billed as “The New Mavericks at the RNC 2024,” and took in the number of fellow Black conservatives in the room, St. Louis-Franklin smiled as he commented on what a long way Black conservatives had come to be able to fill a room with dozens of delegates.

“Before, if you said you’re voting for Trump, you’re kind of put on an island … because you’re voting Republican,” he added. “But now, without a question, there’s a more positive reaction to saying you’re voting for Trump and saying they’re voting for Republicans.”

Republicans have been making a concerted effort this cycle to court Black voters, particularly Black men. That approach was on display on Monday during the first night of the convention, where a number of Black conservatives were given prominent speaking slots. Scott and three of the four Black U.S. House Republicans — Reps. Byron Donalds (Fla.), John James (Mich.) and Wesley Hunt (Tex.) — were among the speakers onstage.

Michael Austin, 34, a delegate from Kansas, said he felt Republicans had really failed to engage with Black voters in the past — but it was Trump who had shifted that.

“Our community has been voting Democrat for so long … but now we have somebody on the other side who’s actually talking to us, listening to us, respecting us,” Austin said. “He speaks to us … and that’s something that we really haven’t seen — not necessarily in my lifetime.”

Operatives say they recognize that a large majority of Black voters are still likely to back the Democratic presidential nominee, but they’re hoping to see a sizable increase — even if it is just a few percentage points. Any increase, they say, could help Trump win in key battleground states.

Several other Black delegates at the convention highlighted a talking point Trump frequently mentions on the campaign trail as part of why they support him: That his administration achieved the lowest Black unemployment rate ever. Trump did have the lowest Black unemployment rates in August 2019, but Biden broke that record in March 2023, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“He talks about his economic achievement — and what that has meant for the Black community — and that’s what we need to be hearing. How you’re going to improve our lives,” Austin said. “That’s what’ll win us votes.”

Meanwhile, Biden on Tuesday spoke at the NAACP National Convention before hundreds of Black attendees. In his remarks, he sought to draw contrast between himself and Trump, touting his record of economic growth and appointing Black people to top positions in his administration. He also criticized the former president for downplaying or ignoring political violence in cases with Black victims.

Delegates also mentioned they were pleased to see Trump say he wanted to focus on a message of unity, rather than on attacks, in his nomination acceptance speech on Thursday night at the Republican convention. In the wake of Trump surviving an assassination attempt and several dismissed court rulings, delegates have been vocal about how united they are around Trump and how those recent moments have really re-energized them.

But there was less clarity on whether Trump’s vice-presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), has won a vote of confidence among all Black delegates just yet.

Christopher Anderson, a delegate from Maryland, said he wished Trump had selected Donalds as his running mate — but he was confident the Florida Republican would reach higher office in the future. He said he trusts that Vance is the right pick for Trump to secure a win in November and knows Vance is “a very intelligent man.”

Alvin Portee Jr., a delegate from South Carolina, shared that he had never heard of Vance until his name was announced as Trump’s running mate, but he had faith Trump knew what he was doing and had made a strong pick.

“I’m believing in Donald Trump. We’re gonna win — but what I most want to see is unity after the election,” said Portee, who on the convention floor was sporting a hat with a photo of Abraham Lincoln.

“We need to not be dividing ourselves as Democrats and Republicans. After this election is over, we need to love each other. We don’t need to fight.”