GOP bets on Black conservatives as key to victory: 'We change or we die'

"Cases in point: A 2019 Pew poll found that 49 percent of Black Americans oppose same-sex marriage versus 32 percent of whites; a 2020 Gallup survey reported that 54 percent of Black respondents do not believe abortion is morally acceptable; a 2018 Harvard-Harris survey found 85 percent of Black Americans favor restricting legal immigration, more than any other demographic group; and 73 percent of Black voters support school choice, according to a 2021 RealClear survey."

"Cases in point: A 2019 Pew poll found that 49 percent of Black Americans oppose same-sex marriage versus 32 percent of whites; a 2020 Gallup survey reported that 54 percent of Black respondents do not believe abortion is morally acceptable; a 2018 Harvard-Harris survey found 85 percent of Black Americans favor restricting legal immigration, more than any other demographic group; and 73 percent of Black voters support school choice, according to a 2021 RealClear survey."

"That allegiance began with the 1936 reelection of President Franklin Roosevelt on the heels of the New Deal with its social programs for the poor, was bolstered when President Harry Truman integrated the Armed Forces and banned racial discrimination in federal employment, and was cemented in the 1960s with President Lyndon Johnson pushing through the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts."

"After all, Trump did increase his share of the Black vote in 2020 despite running against a ticket that included Democrat Kamala Harris, the first Black major-party vice presidential candidate, and just months after Black Lives Matter demonstrations related to George Floyd's death and other Black victims of police violence."

"In the early days of the 2016 Trump campaign, amid the candidate's harsh remarks about immigrants and some communities of color, a Politico headline blared, "Trump kills GOP autopsy" and New York Magazine called it "dead and buried.""

This is a negative sentiment.

"Trump, in some cases, can be a surprisingly helpful factor, too."

This is a positive sentiment.

"Installed atop the RNC after Donald Trump became president, McDaniel has, in fact, made expanding outreach to Black voters a hallmark of her tenure -- an extension of the Black Voices For Trump effort during the 2016 campaign."

This is a positive sentiment.

"Also a possible factor: disappointment among Black voters that McAuliffe never renounced an endorsement from outgoing Democratic Governor Ralph Northam, given the 2019 scandal in which photos of Northam costumed in blackface emerged."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Trump praised the ad, endorsed her and gave her a prime-time speaking slot at the 2020 Republican Convention."

This is a positive sentiment.

"You don't even know me, dude, I don't know you, so how dare you,'" Donalds says."

This is a negative sentiment.

""Donald Trump, to a greater degree than any Republican presidential candidate that I've seen, went to the inner city and tried to get Black votes," Elder says."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Many progressives took umbrage with Trump's August 2016 blunt appeal to Black voters -- "You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed."

This is a negative sentiment.

""That's not how Trump operates."

This is a negative sentiment.

"(Biden later apologized.)"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Craig's campaign to unseat Whitmer, Rigueur says, is "not about wiing 100 percent of the Black folks, it's not even about wiing 50 percent."

This is a negative sentiment.

""The biggest thing to me was all the blowback from within the Republican Party that I was not aware of as I was coming in," says Klacik, who lost by more than 40 points to Democratic incumbent Kweisi Mfume."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Also running in GOP primaries: former Army helicopter pilot Wesley Hunt, the first Black Republican nominee for Congress in Texas in 2020, when he lost by 3 points in a Houston-area district; former Scott legislative aide Shay Hawkins of Akron, Ohio; businessman Quincy McKnight of Nashville; and ex-Trump aide Rod Dorilu00e1s, a 31-year-old Navy veteran in Palm Beach County, Florida.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Also running in GOP primaries: former Army helicopter pilot Wesley Hunt, the first Black Republican nominee for Congress in Texas in 2020, when he lost by 3 points in a Houston-area district; former Scott legislative aide Shay Hawkins of Akron, Ohio; businessman Quincy McKnight of Nashville; and ex-Trump aide Rod Dorilu00e1s, a 31-year-old Navy veteran in Palm Beach County, Florida.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

""It's not just about Black conservatives rising and seeing their success," says Donalds, a first-term House member who doesn't mince words when it comes to the opposition."

This is a positive sentiment.

"President Trump and I have had great discussions and President Trump believes that Congress needs me, that this country needs me," Jones tells Newsweek this week."

This is a positive sentiment.

"The Trump record is complicated too, despite his outreach to Black voters."

This is a negative sentiment.

"The closest 19-year-old social media star C.J. Pearson, a Black Republican who chaired Teens for Trump in 2016, comes to condemning Trump is to tell Newsweek that Charlottesville was "just one of those moments where the president could have been a bit more tactful."

This is a negative sentiment.

"The strategy fits neatly into the playbook recommended in the 2013 RNC report analyzing Romney's presidential-election loss -- the one dubbed "the autopsy" -- which urged the GOP to seek votes beyond its base of older white Americans."

This is a negative sentiment.

"In South Carolina, Scott, only the second Black Republican in the Senate since Reconstruction, has nominal opposition for his reelection and has amassed a huge campaign war chest, sparking chatter about a possible White House run in 2024 or 2028."

This is a negative sentiment.

""I looked at [what Biden said] like 'What?"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Longtime GOP strategist Ron Christie, author of Black in the White House about his work for President George W. Bush, recalls early in his career as a Congressional aide being harangued by Democratic Representative Maxine Waters of California who, he claims, told him he was "a disgrace to your race.""

This is a negative sentiment.

"Black Republicans who defend Trump rarely mention the former president's insistence that there were "very fine people on both sides" in the deadly Unite the Right protest staged by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017; his insults of predominantly Black nations as "sh*thole countries;" his use of the military to clear Lafayette Square of a Black Lives Matter protest for his photo op at a church; the spike in anti-minority hate crimes that pocked his years in office; or his ongoing, unfounded claims of voter fraud in 2020, particularly from heavily Black cities like Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia."

This is a negative sentiment.

"He's raised more than $30 million since 2017, second only to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York among senators seeking reelection in 2022, according to Federal Election Commission records."

This is a negative sentiment.

""I am the face of the Republican Party," declares Vernon Jones, the former Georgia state senator who switched parties last year and this week, after talks with Trump, abandoned a campaign for governor in order to pursue the GOP nod in an open House seat."

This is a negative sentiment.

"From Georgia, where high-profile Black Republicans seek nominations for both governor and senator, to Michigan, where former Detroit Police Chief James Craig is the odds-on favorite to go up against Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, to a lineup of well-funded House and Senate candidates poised to break the record for the number of Black Republicans elected to Congress, a decade-long effort to broaden the appeal of the GOP is finally bearing fruit -- and could play a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Indeed, North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and unsuccessful U.S. Senate hopeful John James in Michigan were the top vote-getting Republicans in their states in their most recent races, indicating they both excited the GOP base and drew crossover votes."

This is a positive sentiment.

"One countervailing factor lately: the presence of high-profile Black conservative media figures like Candace Owens and government officials such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who publicly endorse the GOP agenda.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"By 2020, when Trump ran for reelection, the RNC rented office space in 15 major cities with a large Black population in battleground states for regularly staffed "Voices For Trump" field offices."

This is a negative sentiment.

"More recently, Trump's endorsements of a number of little-known Black politicians, despite their slim chances of wining, is encouraging some Black Republican candidates to ignore traditional GOP gatekeepers -- local party bosses -- who in the past have put the kibosh on their ambitions, says Rigueur, the Johns Hopkins political scientist.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"GOP Congressman Donalds of Florida was particularly incensed by Joe Biden's appearance on Charlamagne Tha God's radio show during the 2020 campaign, when he said, "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't Black.""

This is a negative sentiment.

"GOP Congressman Donalds of Florida was particularly incensed by Joe Biden's appearance on Charlamagne Tha God's radio show during the 2020 campaign, when he said, "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't Black.""

This is a negative sentiment.

"GOP Congressman Donalds of Florida was particularly incensed by Joe Biden's appearance on Charlamagne Tha God's radio show during the 2020 campaign, when he said, "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't Black.""

This is a negative sentiment.

"The Detroit News poll also showed Craig tied with Whitmer among white voters but backed by just 7.6 percent of the Black vote to Whitmer's 82.3 percent, with 10.1 percent undecided."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Ten years after its "autopsy" of Mitt Romney's 2012 loss to Barack Obama concluded that the Republican Party's biggest problem was its failure to appeal to voters of color, 2022 is shaping up as a breakthrough year for the GOP on at least one diversity front:"

This is a positive sentiment.

"Ten years after its "autopsy" of Mitt Romney's 2012 loss to Barack Obama concluded that the Republican Party's biggest problem was its failure to appeal to voters of color, 2022 is shaping up as a breakthrough year for the GOP on at least one diversity front:"

This is a positive sentiment.

"Black Republicans point out that, despite his coarse rhetoric on racial issues, Trump's presidency brought policy changes and other developments that benefited people of color, including an economy that yielded record-low Black unemployment; the First Step Act, which eased stringent federal criminal sentencing guidelines and created mechanisms for earlier prison release; and a budget that included $255 million per year for 10 years for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Jones is precisely the sort of candidate Laird, the University of Maryland political scientist, meant when she talked about Black hopefuls who attract Trump's eye and his endorsement. ""

This is a positive sentiment.

"(Trump has not aounced an endorsement yet, but insiders say it is imminent in part as a reward for Jones' endorsement of Trump's pick for governor, former Senator David Perdue, over incumbent GOP Governor Brian Kemp, whom Trump despises.)"

This is a positive sentiment.

"(Trump has not aounced an endorsement yet, but insiders say it is imminent in part as a reward for Jones' endorsement of Trump's pick for governor, former Senator David Perdue, over incumbent GOP Governor Brian Kemp, whom Trump despises.)"

This is a positive sentiment.

"(Trump has not aounced an endorsement yet, but insiders say it is imminent in part as a reward for Jones' endorsement of Trump's pick for governor, former Senator David Perdue, over incumbent GOP Governor Brian Kemp, whom Trump despises.)"

This is a positive sentiment.

"The three Black Republicans now in Congress -- South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and Representatives Burgess Owens of Ohio and Byron Donalds of Florida -- are the largest number to serve simultaneously since Reconstruction."

This is a negative sentiment.

"The three Black Republicans now in Congress -- South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and Representatives Burgess Owens of Ohio and Byron Donalds of Florida -- are the largest number to serve simultaneously since Reconstruction."

This is a negative sentiment.

"The three Black Republicans now in Congress -- South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and Representatives Burgess Owens of Ohio and Byron Donalds of Florida -- are the largest number to serve simultaneously since Reconstruction."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Elder, for instance, was labeled "the Black face of white supremacy" during his run to unseat Newsom."

This is a positive sentiment.

"Yet radio talk host Larry Elder, a Black conservative and the top vote-getting Republican in September's failed recall of Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, says Trump followed the autopsy's advice all the way to the White House and beyond.nn"

This is a positive sentiment.

"Yet radio talk host Larry Elder, a Black conservative and the top vote-getting Republican in September's failed recall of Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, says Trump followed the autopsy's advice all the way to the White House and beyond.nn"

This is a positive sentiment.

""It started with President Trump and how vocal he was about the Black Voices for Trump movement being fully funded and staffed at the campaign, and then you have the chairwoman funding it and the donors embracing it after that," Deard says."

This is a positive sentiment.

"A number of high-profile candidates are serious contenders if not outright favorites, including Craig in Michigan; former college football star Herschel Walker seeking to unseat Democratic incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock in Georgia; and ex-State Senator Vernon Jones of Georgia attempting to replace retiring GOP Representative Jody Hice in a sprawling district east of Atlanta."

This is a negative sentiment.

"A number of high-profile candidates are serious contenders if not outright favorites, including Craig in Michigan; former college football star Herschel Walker seeking to unseat Democratic incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock in Georgia; and ex-State Senator Vernon Jones of Georgia attempting to replace retiring GOP Representative Jody Hice in a sprawling district east of Atlanta."

This is a negative sentiment.

"But supporters say that was a prelude to a presidency in which Trump led an outreach and policy initiative that, by 2020, brought his share of the Black vote up to 12 percent, the highest percentage for a GOP presidential nominee since Ronald Reagan took 14 percent on his way to the White House in 1980."

This is a positive sentiment.

"After all, Trump did increase his share of the Black vote in 2020 despite ruing against a ticket that included Democrat Kamala Harris, the first Black major-party vice presidential candidate, and just months after Black Lives Matter demonstrations related to George Floyd's death and other Black victims of police violence."

This is a positive sentiment.

"After all, Trump did increase his share of the Black vote in 2020 despite ruing against a ticket that included Democrat Kamala Harris, the first Black major-party vice presidential candidate, and just months after Black Lives Matter demonstrations related to George Floyd's death and other Black victims of police violence."

This is a positive sentiment.

"They may include John James, who joined the race for a new seat in the Detroit suburbs this month after his losing his last Senate bid by just 1.7 percentage points; if elected, he would be Michigan's first Black Republican member of Congress."

This is a positive sentiment.

"A Detroit News poll in early January had him 9.5 points behind Whitmer with 11.7 percent undecided in the general election; a Detroit Free Press poll weeks later had him trailing by just 5 points with 13 percent undecided."

This is a positive sentiment.