GOP efforts to reach Black voters through RNC a 'miscalculation'

Republican efforts to win over Black voters during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee may have fallen short as GOP members failed to showcase party diversity and fell back on controversial talking points.

Though former President Trump is hoping to siphon Black voter support from Democrats this year, only eight of the speakers at the convention were Black, and seven spoke on the first night, when viewership is often at its lowest. There were no elected Black woman speaking at the convention – a stark comparison to the DNC, where Vice President Harris will deliver remarks.  

“This is a miscalculation on behalf of the Republican Party,” Mondale Robinson, founder of the Black Male Voter Project, told The Hill. “There's no real outreach to Black people from the Republican National Convention and their efforts to reach us through this performance at the RNC is as tacky as Trump's tan.” 

GOP efforts to speak to Black voters included launching a Black voter outreach initiative the week ahead of the RNC, as well as leaning on Black voices, most notably reality television star and model Amber Rose. 

In her speech, Rose spoke of “finding her people” among Trump supporters and realizing that the media had been wrong about Trump. 

Some prominent Republicans have cheered Rose’s speech, with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) describing the influencer’s remarks as “heartwarming.” 

“I loved her speech. I thought she did a fantastic job,” she told The Hill in Milwaukee this week, adding she “watched the whole thing.” 

Her inclusion is seen in the GOP as part of a larger push to expand the party’s appeal.  

“We’re reaching out to nontraditional Republican voters,” Washington state Rep. Jim Walsh, a delegate and chair of the state’s Republican Party, said when asked about Rose being in the convention’s speaker lineup. “That's what we did in the district I represent in the legislature in Washington.” 

“For 70 years it had been a deep blue district, and we turned it about eight years ago and now it's considered a safe red district, and we did that by reaching out to people who you don’t think of as stereotypical Republican voters,” he said, including “single moms, a lot of ethnic minorities” and “a lot of union households.” 

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) argued on Wednesday that Trump has been key in expanding the party’s appeal and helping chip away at critical voting blocs for Democrats, specifically mentioning Black voters.  

“Traditional Democrat voters, Black voters, Asian voters, Hispanic voters, I would argue now liberal Jews, they don't just come to you in this country ... my grandfather's Democrat Party has gone off the cliff on the left,” he said at an event less than a mile from the RNC. “They can't support the social agenda. They can’t support the economic agenda.”

“It is our job now to go and meet them where they are and to educate them into who we are and why we're the better choice, and it started with finding candidates recruiting candidates that looked and sounded more like the districts that they were looking to represent,” Emmer said. “I think results over the last five years have been incredible, and I would argue to you that this election is going to take it to a whole new level.” 

But some have doubted the impact that efforts like bringing in Rose — whom some conservatives have singled out for her past advocacy on women’s issues — will have on younger and minority voters. At the same, there’s also concern over how a focus on diversifying the party may impact its base.  

“I didn't know who she was, and, you know, I get it ... bringing young people in and widening the tent, but it generally doesn't work,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told The Hill. 

“We better worry about our base, though. That's what I'm more concerned about,” he said, adding: “Twenty million evangelical Christians decided not to go to the polls last time —   that's why Joe Biden's in the White House, and so, if we disregard our base, that will hurt us.”

Robinson, of the Black Male Voter Project, added that Black voters — and men in particular — aren't paying attention to the convention.  

“Black men are not watching these conventions,” said Robinson. “This is not a convention for Black men. This is not a convention that's going to bring in Black men. It's a convention for Black men who are married to white women to go and make their white friends feel like they’re going to reach Black men. 

Still, Trump has been campaigning hard for the support of Black male voters as a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the Democratic party spreads throughout the community.  

Though 64 percent of Black women said they would vote for Biden if the election were held today, according to a new survey from The Cut, this number is significantly lower than the 95 percent who supported him in 2020. Meanwhile, an April Wall Street Journal swing state poll found about 30 percent of Black men said they were either definitely or probably going to vote for Trump. In 2020, Trump garnered about 12 percent support from Black men. 

While he had originally indicated he was considering Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) as his running mate, that fell apart when Sen. JD Vance was announced as the vice-presidential pick earlier this week. Still, Scott gave an impassioned speech on Monday, calling Trump an “American lion.”  

Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) invoked his identity as a Black man in his own speech.  

“I’m the great-great-grandson of a slave. I’m the son of a retired lieutenant colonel. I’m the product of West Point along with my other two siblings. And I risked my life in combat to preserve our nation,” Hunt said, adding that Trump is now risking his life for the nation. 

But using these Black men to speak to voters may not have the impact Republicans want, said Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright.  

“What's so sad about their quote-unquote Black engagement strategy is the fact that it's not even close to speaking to the generational needs and desires and the battles that we have faced from our time here in this country until now,” said Seawright. “It certainly does not address the fact that many of the battles we are fighting now are a direct result of their extreme measures and extreme policies and extreme politicians who are working day and night to erode away at the progress we made in this country.”