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The GOP 2024 presidential field is shaping up to be one of the most diverse yet for the party.
Three Republican candidates of color have launched a bid for the White House. On Thursday, conservative radio host Larry Elder, who is Black, became the latest to join the growing list of GOP hopefuls.
Two other Republicans of color—former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who are both South Asian—have announced their presidential campaigns. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is Black, is considering running. Last week, he said he is launching an exploratory committee to determine whether he will enter the race.
With Elder officially in the running, three Republican candidates of color are seeking the nomination along with two white candidates: former President Donald Trump and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson.
There have been Republican presidential candidates of color in the past, but the current field is on track to have the highest number in U.S. history.
In 1996, former diplomat Alan Keyes became the first African American to run in the GOP presidential primaries, but he did not win any state's primary or caucus. Civil rights activist and "father of affirmative action" Arthur Fletcher, who is Black, also made a run for the presidency that year, but withdrew before the primary elections.
Keyes ran again in 2000 but withdrew at the Republican Convention in which George W. Bush won the nomination. The late businessman Herman Cain, who was Black, also ran that year but withdrew before the primary elections.
In 2016, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who is Black, made a bid for the White House. He was joined by Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who are both Latinos of Cuban descent. All three Republicans withdrew during the primaries and endorsed Trump.
"Republicans have had multiple candidates from different races and ethnicities in the past—Latino and African American in 2016 being the most recent example—so it's not surprising that in a contested primary, the 2024 GOP field reflects the party's success in electing conservative leaders at the federal and state level who believe they have what it takes to be president," Republican strategist Matt Klink told Newsweek.
Polls show that Haley and Ramaswamy have some support among Republican voters, but those voters still overwhelmingly favor Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not announced his candidacy. Trump and DeSantis are the only GOP names who regularly clear the double-digit threshold for support in the 2024 race.
And while the Republican Party has greatly diversified its candidates and elected officials in recent years, election data shows that minority voters are still far more likely to vote for Democrats than Republicans.
A Pew Research Center analysis of the 2020 presidential election found that Black voters overwhelmingly favored the Democratic Party. President Joe Biden received the support of 92 percent of Black voters. He also took a majority of Hispanic voters, with 59 percent support, and Asian voters, which backed Biden by 63 percent, according to exit polls.
Update 04/21/23 7:18 p.m. This story was updated with comments from Klink.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek senior reporter based in New York City. She has covered U.S. politics and culture extensively. ... Read more