Black women, Black men, Latinos, Asian-Pacific Islanders, a herd of boastful Bison from Howard University, Kamala Harris’ alma mater, and just about every group imaginable is gathering to put her in the Oval Office. White women even broke Zoom with 164,000 on their call to get behind Harris — some abandoning not only their political parties, but also their husbands. No, his-and-her votes for Trump this time around.
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So, when are Black Republicans having their call, a brother tweeted? Or are they?
Deciding that they wanted to be on the “right side of history,” some Black Republicans crossed party lines to vote for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Will they do the same for Harris?
“I just wonder if that’s still a thing for some Black Republicans, specifically Black women,” said Michael K. Fauntroy, Ph.D., author of Republicans and the Black Vote. “When they actually get in front of the ballot, I think some of them are going to change their mind.”
In 2008, 94% of Black voters supported Obama, including 87% of those identifying as Black conservatives.
That, of course, was B.T. — Before Trump.
“I actually don’t see a mass exodus,” said Glynda C. Carr, president and CEO of the Higher Heights for America PAC. “Those who attended the Republican National Convention last week clearly signaled that they believe the platform the Republicans laid out is more closely aligned to their values.”
But those are clout chasers or Republicans already deeply entrenched in the party, such as elected officials, contends Karen Maria Alston, a formerly active Republican who became Independent A.T. — After Trump.
“I was sort of a closet Republican,” who supported Obama, but couldn’t abide Trump’s “foolishness,” she explained. “Anybody who is Black — still Black — they just can’t.”
“With Donald Trump, there’s just nothing,” said Alston, founder and president of The Spectrum Circle, which empowers women interested in business and entrepreneurship. “Everything he touches, he destroys.”
Similarly, Fauntroy notes that African Americans like commentator Michael Steele, former chair of the Republican National Committee who served as Maryland’s lieutenant governor, were never on what he calls the Trump train.
“He was among a small group of Black Republicans that have been consistent in their vocal opposition to a turn of the Republican Party toward white nationalism,” said Fauntroy, director of the Race, Politics and Policy Center at George Mason University outside Washington, D.C.
Alston, who worked on President George W. Bush’s campaign and was a founding board member of the Catalyst PAC to support diverse Republican candidates, believes that the GOP no longer exists. It’s now the Trump Party, she says, which Alston and others like her can no longer stomach.
So, they’re Team Kamala – some openly, but others still on the down low. A new poll indicates that Harris has pulled at least 5% of Trump’s supporters.
Alston is putting her time, talent and treasure behind Harris. “I’ve already donated. I’m going to donate again,” Alston said. “I can go to battleground states and speak to people who are Independents or who might be a little off center, like I am.”
Yanick Rice Lamb is a journalism professor at Howard University and author of the forthcoming book “In My Backyard: How Pollution and Climate Change Are Making Black America Sick to Death.”
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