Editor’s Note: Liberty Nation’s Washington Political Columnist Tim Donner and socio-political Correspondent Jeff Charles talk about President Trump’s success with minority voters. This is the transcript of Liberty Nation Radio heard coast-to-coast on the Radio America Network. A podcast version or a videocast of this program is also available by clicking the links.
Tim Donner: Well, much was made in the 2020 election campaign of President Trump's effort to attract a greater share of the minority vote. He's compiled an admirable record on issues ranging from criminal justice reform to opportunity zones in Black communities to permanent funding of historically Black colleges. But most of all, Black and Hispanic unemployment fell to its lowest level ever, and this was supposed to boost the president's support substantially among minorities.
And at least on the surface, it seemed to work because Trump got the greatest share of the majority vote, that's Black and Brown people, of any GOP presidential candidate in 60 years. But did it hit the target? Did it alter the minority vote enough to give Republicans hope on this front going forward?
Joining us to help answer that question is libertynation.com's socio-political correspondent, our old friend, Jeff Charles. Welcome back, Jeff.
Jeff Charles: Hey, thanks for having me.
Tim: So Jeff, we talked about this on more than one occasion leading up to the election, and discussed how if ever the GOP could make a breakthrough among minority communities, it would be this year since Trump spent more political capital on attracting Black and Brown voters than any Republican we've ever seen. Would you call the reported result, tainted as it may be, more a breakthrough or more a disappointment?
Jeff: Yeah, I think it's a breakthrough. And you and I, like you said, we've talked about this, and he performed basically the way I expected. I knew he was going to increase the support among Black Americans and amongst Latinos. And the reason why is because he actually put forth the effort. And there was a lot of times where Trump didn't do himself a lot of favors on race, but despite that, he actually reached out; he had a full team set up to reach out to minority voters, to earn their trust, and even with the influence of the media and the Democratic Party he was able to increase his percentage. Which, by the way, the left, if you've noticed, is very upset about that.
So this is a breakthrough, and I think that it does two things. It gives the Republican Party a template to follow that they can build upon as far as winning at the local and at the state and in Congress. I think it gives them that. And it also takes away the excuses. Because the excuse is always we can't win more voters in these areas because Black people will never vote for us. Well, that's not true. I mean, Trump did better than Bush, McCain, and Romney. So if he can do that, then the GOP can do it as well.
Tim: So, Jeff, just how much do you believe the media assault on Trump as a racist penetrated the consciousness of Black people across the country?
Jeff: Oh, it was very effective. I mean, it’s nothing different from what they do to every Republican president, right. They always paint them as racist. So that did its job as normal. Like I said, Trump didn't do himself any favors. There were areas where he faltered a little bit. Like if you think about the debate when he was asked about white supremacy and some other issues as well. Of course, that doesn't mean that he's a racist, but I think that he just made a few mistakes that hurt him in that regard. But even so, even with that, he was still able to increase his support in the Black community, especially amongst Black men, 18%.
So I do think that the media was effective but weak. But the thing about the media is that we can't really focus too much on that because they're always going to do this. There's never going to be a time where they're going to report fairly on a Republican president. We need to focus on how do we get around that. And I think that Trump can teach us some lessons on that.
Tim: Now, we also saw a greater number of Black Republicans running for Congress, like Kim Klacik in Baltimore, actually challenging Democrats in inner-city communities in high profile fashion. But Klacik only wound up with about 28% of the vote. Do you see real movement here? Or was this more of a one-off with the GOP concluding that trying to capture urban congressional districts is a futile venture?
Jeff: Yeah. I think that these races were significant. You also had Shannon Wright running for mayor, and I've talked to a couple of people running in Baltimore. I talked to a guy who was running for city council, a Black Republican. And here's the thing, Tim. The GOP has not been present in these areas in a significant way in decades. So I hate to say it, but I didn't expect them to win. I expected them to make a showing, and then they did. But I always tell my fellow Republicans, my fellow conservatives, this is not a sprint; it's a marathon. It's going to take a while.
And to be honest, the people that I talked to on the ground in Baltimore, the GOP didn't really get involved until later. Now, better late than never. They started getting involved in supporting these candidates. But it needs to be a full-court press supporting candidates in cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, DC. And believe it or not, Black voters are open to hearing from Republicans, but they need to get some of that trust back.
The GOP needs to earn some of that trust back, and I think this is the start of it. So I'm pretty positive about this thing going forward. I don't think that at least not rank and file Republicans will give up on pushing the GOP to court Black voters and Hispanic voters because it's necessary for its survival.
Tim: Do you get any indications one way or the other on whether the GOP writ large sees an opening, a real opening in minority communities, enough to invest the kind of effort that Trump exerted?
Jeff: You know, I'm not sure yet. I do think that there is movement in that direction amongst some. I think a lot of Republicans are becoming more open to it. I do think that the establishment is still wanting to go back to business as usual. But I do see an opportunity because there are more and more Republicans that are getting on board with this, and Trump helped with a lot of that.
So I think in the future, it is going to be a battle between those who want the status quo and those who actually want the Republican Party to evolve and appeal to more Americans. And in the end, it's going to be the faction that wants more of a bigger tent that is going to win out because if it doesn't, then the Republican Party is pretty-much gone. If I were to ask every single rank and file Republican voter in this country if they would like to see more Black and Latino voters on our side, 99.9% of them are going to give a resounding yes.
Tim: Well, I appreciate you laying that one to rest. And Jeff, thanks for joining us again. Appreciate it.
Jeff: Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Tim: Jeff Charles, socio-political correspondent for libertynation.com.
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