Making the Republican Case for Black Support The post-Obama era is an opportunity for the GOP to reboot its efforts: Jason Riley
http://www.wsj.com/articles/making-the-republican-case-for-black-support-1444169870
While Republicans are busy deciding who will represent the party in next year’s presidential election, Gary Franks is contemplating how the eventual nominee could do a better job of attracting black support.
If his name sounds familiar, Mr. Franks is a former congressman from Connecticut and a bona fide racial pioneer. Upon winning his House seat in 1990, the Waterbury native became the first black Republican in Congress in nearly six decades and the only one ever elected from Connecticut. Over the next six years, Mr. Franks fought for welfare reform, backed lower tax rates, opposed the racial gerrymandering of voting districts and tested the tolerance of Congressional Black Caucus progressives.
The caucus failed the test, of course, voting to limit their GOP colleague’s access to meetings. Former Missouri Rep. Bill Clay Sr., a veteran of the caucus and father of the current congressman, took matters even further and in 1996 issued a six-page letter that referred to “Franks’ foot-shuffling, head-scratching ‘Amos and Andy’ brand of ‘Uncle Tom-ism.’ ” Mr. Franks, ever the jolly warrior, did not respond in kind. “Obviously Bill Clay is not a supporter of mine,” he deadpanned, “but I wish him Godspeed.”
After losing his House seat in 1996, and losing a subsequent Senate bid against incumbent Chris Dodd two years later, Mr. Franks retired from public life. In addition to some consulting work, he has lectured at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and Hampton University in Virginia. But Mr. Franks told me by phone last week that he has never stopped thinking about how his party can increase support among blacks, and he believes the post- Obama era is an opportunity for the GOP to reboot these efforts.
The ex-lawmaker would like to see the Republican presidential nominee take between 20% and 25% of the black vote next year. 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.
Moreover, said Mr. Franks, “throughout the 1990s and 2000s we had a number of Republican governors who did well enough in the cities to be able to capture the state. Tom Ridge did well enough in Philadelphia; John Engler did well enough in Detroit; Tommy Thompson did well enough in Milwaukee.” George Pataki in New York and John Rowland in Connecticut are other examples. “We had governors who got 18%, 16%, 21% of the black vote,” said Mr. Franks. “As governors, George Bush in Texas and Jeb Bush in Florida did pretty well with black voters.”
Although President Obama won’t be on the ballot next year, he remains popular with his black base. The challenge for the Republican nominee, said Mr. Franks, will be scrutinizing Mr. Obama’s policies without further alienating his most loyal supporters. Republicans don’t need to pander, but they do need to lay bare the president’s poor track record with respect to issues that confront blacks. This requires a level of engagement beyond a speech to the NAACP. It means spending time in black communities introducing yourself and your ideas. It means taking full advantage of black social-media outlets in ways that Mr. Romney did not.
“Yes, you’ve got to show up,” Mr. Franks told me, “but it’s more than that. You’ve got to explain that participating in only one half of a [two-party] system doesn’t work. You’ve got to show contrasts between what Democrats have done and what Republicans have done on issues like school choice and faith-based interventions.”
The liberal track record on black unemployment, poverty and urban violence is especially weak. “These things have worsened under Obama,” he said. “Talk about the kids in Baltimore and Chicago being shot. That’s what blacks want to hear about from Republicans. How would you change the situation? Democrats’ response to gun violence is to do something about guns. That’s ridiculous. When blacks were being lynched in the South, was the response to do something about ropes? Everyone knows this is about gangs and drugs and personal behavior.”
Mr. Franks is eager to share his thoughts and policy prescriptions with any candidate who will hear them. 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.
Long-term, he told me, the GOP probably will need more black elected officials to attract more black voters. And that means mining the cities for talent. “You’ve got to get blacks elected at the municipal level—city councilmen, aldermen. You need foot soldiers, individuals who know the process. You can’t have a party trying to do outreach in certain communities unless you have people who’ve been through the experience. And that remains a major gap.”
Mr. Riley, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow and Journal contributor, is the author of “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed” (Encounter Books, 2014).
Comments are closed.
