The Republican Party Needs to Become a Home for Black Voters. Here's How | Opinion

During the recent primary election season, I ran for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat in my beloved state of Pennsylvania. Though I didn't win, I learned a lot. While on the campaign trail for 13 months, I traveled more than 1,500 miles a week. If you mention a county in Pennsylvania, I can immediately recall the faces of the people I met. I remember their stories. I see their eyes, their joys. I feel their stresses. And whether Black, white, rich, poor, Democrat or Republican, there was a growing consensus that our country is on a downhill slide.

As a conservative Republican, it should come as no surprise that I believe the Democrat Party has played a large part in that slide and has offered no meaningful solutions to the problems we face. What did come as a surprise to me is the role many in Republican leadership have played and are still playing in that downhill slide, due in large part to their passivity and lack of energy in reaching outside a well-insulated Republican cocoon to connect with voters who are not already Republicans.

I believe Republicans have the better policies with which to solve many of our troubles as a country. But to implement those better policies, Republicans must first win elections, and to do that, we must be willing to create new pathways into previously unreached communities—paths that have often been deliberately less traveled by our Party.

One such path leads into the Black community.

During my primary debate, I—the only Black candidate on stage—was also the only one asked about my outreach to the Black community. It was disappointing to see such a blatant display of identity politics in a conservative primary. But it was also unsurprising. Because the truth is, Republicans have struggled to reach Black Americans.

So how do Republicans create those new pathways?

It starts with showing up. If they put in the effort, Republican leaders would learn that Black people are not special little unicorns. There's no secret language that we require. Start by talking with—not to—us, as you would your neighbor, your kids' soccer coach, or any other person you care about.

The people I met while campaigning understand this. They get it. It was not uncommon for me to walk into a room of 1,000 Republicans and be the only Black person—yet I felt at home. Being Black and openly conservative can oftentimes feel very lonely. But not when I was with Republican voters as opposed to the larger Republican "machine." With the voters, I felt loved. I felt appreciated. I felt like a fellow sister in the fight for our country.

The second thing Republicans have to realize is that Black people want what everyone else wants: We want quality schools for our children. We want good jobs. We want to own our own homes. We want lower taxes. We want safe streets; we don't want our kids dodging bullets just to cross the street. When we call 911, we don't want a social worker with a pad in hand showing up at our front door. We want our trash to be picked up weekly and on time. We want our children to have hope.

Sounds simple, right? And yet, while Democrats successfully exploit Black voters with empty promises, the Republican leadership machine seems committed to ignoring these voters.

What would not ignoring them look like? You can start by simply asking for their votes.

Republican strategists need to stop taking it as a given that every Black person will automatically vote for a Democrat. The truth is that most Black people share the conservative values of Republican voters.

During my senatorial campaign, when I went into a Black community to ask people to vote for me, I did so with the desire to show Black people what it felt like to have their votes wooed and pursued with great vigor—as opposed to having their votes considered a foregone conclusion resting comfortably in the back pockets of Democrats.

I was always well received. My team brought our laptops and after I delivered my message, we would change voter registrations from Democrat to Republican, time and time again.

It can be done. But to do it, we must show up and ask for it.

For many years and through many elections, the Black community has suffered under the auspices of the Democrat Party from a trifecta of failing schools, shooting galleries for neighborhoods, and blighted economic opportunity, all of which has caused certain segments within the Black community to be open to real change. Specifically among Black men the ground is fertile. They are open to receiving what only the Republican Party is currently offering: hope.

But Republicans must tell a convincing narrative if we want to be heard, a narrative that feels authentic and not contrived. And we have to find the right stewards for this message. There is a very real machine-driven strategy within the Republican Party of picking the richest person in the room to run for office just because he or she is the richest person in the room.

During my own vetting process as a candidate, the top three questions leadership asked of me were, "How much money do you have?" "How much money do you have?" and—you guessed it—"How much money do you have?"

I get it: Money is important. But it's not everything. Personality, depth, and authenticity matter, too, especially when wooing new voters whose interests we can better represent if given the chance.

I know that sometimes Black people have not made going into their communities and seeking out their votes easy. But we must. The Black community is just one of several largely unreached voter blocs ready to be engaged in an honest and open dialogue—one that isn't led by victimology but with real solutions to their very real problems.

If we believe there is no Party better suited for this journey than the Republican Party, then let's go do this.

Gaining the support of minority communities is a win-win-win proposition: a win for minority communities, a win for our nation, and a win for the Republican Party. As I say in my book, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Kathy Barnette is a mother, author, veteran, and national spokesperson for 1776 Action. In 2022, Kathy was the Republican Primary Candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.