Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Jason Riley, author of Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make it Harder for Blacks to Succeed, wrote about black Republican and former congressman Gary Franks’s advice to the Republicans.
How will the GOP attract black voters?
“The ex-lawmaker would like to see the Republican presidential nominee take between 20% and 25% of the black vote next year,” Riley wrote in the in the Wall Street Journal. “Given Mitt Romney and John McCain’s 6% and 4% showings among blacks in 2012 and 2008, respectively, that’s ambitious. But it’s worth recalling, said Mr. Franks, the progress that had been made on this front pre-Obama. George W. Bush won 11% of black voters, as did Ronald Reagan.”
Franks believes reaching the “black vote” will require Republicans to go beyond speeches at the NAACP and into black communities. Engage blacks on social media. Compare both parties on issues like school choice, unemployment, and violence. Democrats want to disarm law-abiding Americans instead of calling people out for criminal behavior and lack of personal responsibility.
But would it really make a difference?
“Mr. Franks is eager to share his thoughts and policy prescriptions with any candidate who will hear them,” Riley wrote. “He’s in the process of organizing a free-market-oriented think tank—the Franks Center for Public Policy—that will focus on helping inner-city youth both educationally and economically.”
For long-term success, the party needs more black Republican elected officials on the municipal level, “foot soldiers,” for outreach.
Do you agree with Franks?
Photo credit: Joe Shlabotnik – Some Rights Reserved (Creative Commons)
