There are five black Republicans in the House of Representatives or the Senate. On the first night of the Republican National Convention on Monday, four of them spoke. Two of them — Wesley Hunt of Texas and John James of Michigan — took the stage one after the other, just after the GOP nominee for governor of North Carolina spoke. That nominee, Mark Robinson, is also black.
While this may seem atypical for the Republican Party—and not just in the sense that it’s atypical for black Americans to be Republicans—the staging was clearly intentional. Despite the party’s stated disdain for issues centered on race and identity, which it attributes to Democrats, the convention began with a very marked (and somewhat clumsy) effort by the party to present itself as a big red umbrella emblazoned with MAGA (Make America Great Again).
The first night of the convention featured a long speech by Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters union. It was also a sharp departure from previous Republican conventions, both because of the traditional alliance between the Democratic Party and unions and because of Mr. O’Brien’s rhetoric, which, as one might expect from a union leader, focused heavily on how corporations disadvantage their workers.
Mr. O’Brien’s praise of workers drew loud applause, reflecting the party’s growing reliance on white Americans without college degrees. But his rants about big business, which would likely have been applauded effusively in a Dearborn union hall, were met with less enthusiasm in Milwaukee.
Mr. O’Brien’s appearance at the convention was an acknowledgement of his members’ political standing. Union workers (many of them white and uneducated) were more enthusiastic about Donald Trump than union leaders have been since 2016. But it was also a gamble: Could he get Republicans to take action on laws that actually benefit working people? Mr. O’Brien’s speech praised some Republicans on Capitol Hill by name, while indirectly showing that they were few in number.
And that’s the point: O’Brien was there to give union members permission to support Trump and the Republican Party, with the Teamsters boss betting that the party would align with his interests in the future. But given Trump’s history and record as president, it’s a risky bet.
But those were the rules of the game. The black speakers who praised Mr. Trump and his party were there for the same reason: to show black Americans that the Republican Party could be their home, too, but that they should expect some culture shock.
Racism
Two speakers, Mr. James and Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), offered a demonstration. Each decried the idea that the United States is a “racist country,” a useful conflation of concerns about how racism is embedded in American systems with a broader, unpatriotic argument. The real racism, Scott said, is in cities run by Democrats.
James and Scott hosted two of the evening’s four debates on racism. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), co-chair of the party platform committee, hosted another. In her speech, she decried the “racist demands of EDI,” a reference to “equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives.” The acronym “EDI” replaced the acronym “CRT” (critical race theoryor “critical race theory”) as a right-wing shorthand for the supposed disadvantages white Americans face in American society. (White Republicans are more likely to say white Americans are disadvantaged by racism than black Americans.)
The fourth mention of racism came from the most unlikely presenter of the evening, Amber Rose, a model and influencer. Mme Rose, likely the first Republican convention speaker in history to sport a forehead tattoo, said she rallied behind Trump after seeing he was not racist, something “left-wing propaganda” had convinced her he was.
Conservative media icon Matt Walsh was outraged by M’s participationme Rose and the atmosphere of the first evening of the convention in general.
The speaker lineup was “completely absurd and a very bad omen for the future,” he wrote on social media. “Trump has never had more momentum or goodwill, and the RNC (Republican convention) has decided to use that to push a message of diversity and inclusion rather than using it to advance anything resembling a conservative agenda.”
Attracting votes
That’s the disagreement. The party wants (and, to some extent, needs) to expand its electoral base. But, as with the flash-forward discussion of Trump’s “pivot” after this weekend’s assassination attempt, it’s not clear that reaching out to nontraditional voter blocs will alienate the fringe right-wing element that helped fuel Trump’s rise in the first place.
Not to mention the bigger problem of asking nonwhite Americans, union workers or young voters to support Republicans. When the party’s elected officials make decisions behind closed doors, who will they advocate for: the Matt Walshes or the Amber Roses? Trump and his allies will say the party advocates for both. But neither group should be convinced that it does.
The party’s efforts to appeal to Hispanics were demonstrated by several speakers who specifically targeted Latinos, including Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue. His speech cut right to the heart of the party’s message: to reach nonwhite voters but also to reassure traditional business-friendly Republicans.
In this vein, Charlie Kirk was likely invited to speak because his organization, Turning Point USA, serves as a right-wing proxy for young voters. The effectiveness of Kirk’s efforts has never been clear, though they have been lucrative for him personally. He defined his role in the party early in his speech: “I visit college campuses so you don’t have to.” And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? He served as a link between a timid party and a group of voters that was foreign to it. He is the tour guide.
Mr. Kirk told young voters that they “don’t have to support leaders who lied to you and took advantage of you to get your vote.” Instead, they should support Trump, who will make things better…somehow. They should vote for him, period.
The Republican Party has certainly benefited from the upheavals of recent years. Polls suggest that black, Hispanic and young voters are more likely to identify as Republican than they were in the past, and more likely to vote for Trump than they were in 2016 or 2020. That could change. After all, even as the Republican Party tried to offer a message of inclusion that night, voices like Matt Walsh’s are often more mainstream.
There are five black Republicans in the Capitol. And hundreds of white men.
