re: Can Rand Bring Blacks Back to the GOP?

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Senator Rand Paul Is Not Afraid of Black People

Roland S. Martin
July 16, 2014

There is no white Republican elected official today who is coming close to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's effort to reach out to black voters.

When the GOP opened an outreach office in Detroit, Paul was there. Earlier this month, he spoke about education reform to a group of African-Americans. Last year, Paul gave a speech at historically black university, Howard University, where he owned up to the party's failure to connect with black voters. And he has taken positions that have irked some in the GOP, including discussing voter suppression efforts and the failures of mandatory minimums in the criminal justice system.

What Paul is doing is not going to these venues and waving the GOP flag. He's raising issues that are in the wheelhouse of black voters and, at least, getting them to listen to his perspective.

Critics, namely hardcore Democrats, see Paul as nothing more than a charlatan trying to bolster his credentials in advance of a 2016 presidential run. OK, fine. Maybe that is the case. But black voters can't on one hand say Democrats take us for granted, and then when a white Republican extends his hand, we can't cut it off.

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