COMMENTARY
By Paris Dennard | Real Clear Politics
Photo: John James - (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Twenty-seven Black Republican candidates are
running for Congress this election, and that is a good thing
for the Republican Party, our political system, and our entire country.
In 2016, when Republican National Committee (RNC)
Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel headed the Michigan GOP, all the political pundits
and pollsters wrote off the state as fly-over country and certainly did not
think a Republican could do well there. And yet Donald J. Trump beat Hillary
Clinton and won that diverse state. The investments and effective
campaigning laid the foundation for 2020.
A
photo of a mock-up of what one of the Black Voices for Trump centers will look
like, built in Arlington, Va. for members of the press. (Kristin Fisher/Fox
News)
The RNC, in addition to running print ads in Black
newspapers and hosting GOTV events from our Black Voices for Trump Community
Centers, just launched a new seven-figure voter-contact initiative to
directly target and engage with Black voters in urban communities all over the
country, safely knocking on doors to get out the vote for President Trump.
Today in Michigan, veteran businessman and rising GOP
star John James is running to be the next U.S. senator from that state.
After serving in the military for eight years and earning a Combat Action Badge
and two Air Medals, James went on to become president of James Group
International, growing the family business into a major trading partner in the
Michigan auto industry. He knows what it takes to achieve the great American
comeback for his state. John James and President Trump are two leaders
made in the USA for this moment.
Burgess Owens - (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Whether it is Joe Biden saying “You ain’t black,” or MSNBC
calling Black Republican candidates Burgess
Owens and Kimberly
Klacik part of a “modern
day minstrel show,” these men and women are leaders who care, and who
are inspired by another leader – a man who took the opposition head on, ignored
pundits and pollsters who doubted him, and won. That leader is President
Trump.
Hopefully, the mainstream media will report on these
candidates as fairly and respectfully as they did the candidates who became
known as “The Squad,” making them household names as well.
Why not tell a different narrative, show there are Black
Americans who think for themselves, care about their communities and are proud
Republicans?
The following Black candidates are standing
up for their values, standing up for their families, and deserve to be heard
and not silenced or canceled because they are not running as radical liberals:
Tamika Hamilton, Ronda Baldwin-Kennedy, Errol Webber, Aja
Smith, and Joe Collins in California; Casper Stockham in Colorado; Byron
Donalds, Carla Spalding, Vennia Francois, and Lavern Spicer in Florida; Angela
Stanton-King in Georgia; Philanise White and Craig Cameron in Illinois; Rayla
Campbell in Massachusetts; Kimberly Klacik in Maryland; John James in Michigan;
Kendall Qualls and Lacy Johnson in Minnesota; Billy Prempeh in New Jersey;
Laverne Gore in Ohio; Kathy Barnette in Pennsylvania; Charlotte Bergmann in
Tennessee; Wesley Hunt, Wendell Champion, and Tre Pennie in Texas; Burgess
Owens in Utah; and Leon Benjamin in Virginia.
At the recent unveiling of his plan for Black economic
empowerment known as the “Platinum
Plan” in Atlanta, President Trump singled out these candidates running to
join him in Washington to implement many aspects of this holistic plan for the
Black community to help Make America Great Again, again!
In Florida, GOP Rep. Byron Donalds said, “I’m everything
the fake news media tells you doesn’t exist: A strong, Trump-supporting,
gun-owning, liberty-loving, pro-life, politically incorrect Black man.” Raised
in a single parent household in New York, he worked hard, earned a college
degree in finance and marketing, and launched a career in the banking industry
in Florida.
The call to public service led him to the Florida State
House, where voters got to know him and appreciate his conservative values.
Donalds sits on five committees and chairs a subcommittee on insurance and
banking. If there was ever a time to have someone in Congress who understands
our economy and has earned the trust of his community, it is today.
This election, political elites will be reminded that the Republican Party is the original home of Black Americans and Black Republican congressmen.
Under President Trump the GOP is expanding and attracting
more unlikely supporters in what we call “the silent majority.” The GOP is an
open tent party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, the party of freedom,
opportunity, justice and civil rights. We are a diverse party and President
Trump welcomes everyone because he understands that leadership knows no color,
and success knows no ethnic background.
Joe Biden believes Blacks are devoid of
diversity so it would be hard, with his bigoted worldview, to understand that
the 27 Black Americans running for Congress are doing so
because they want to put America first; they want the Platinum Plan in place;
they want to keep taxes low and expand opportunity zones; and they reject
illegal immigration, open borders, and the Green New Deal.
These 27 incredible candidates want to help usher in the
Great American comeback with their election and the reelection of Donald Trump.
Paris Dennard is a GOP political commentator,
strategist, and senior communications adviser for Black Media Affairs at the
Republican National Committee. Follow him on Twitter at @PARISDENNARD.
