The GOP Has Almost Completely Run Out Of Black People

Look, I’m sure at this point that the Republican Party is tired of being referred to as the “old white party,” but now all four Black Republicans in the House of Representatives are on their way out the door, leaving Sen. Tim Scott to be the lone token Black friend of the GOP.

As the New York Times noted, “eight years ago, Kevin McCarthy, then the House Republican leader, embarked on a push to recruit more Black Republicans to run for Congress, arguing that the G.O.P. needed to diversify to survive.”

By 2022, McCarty’s drive to de-white-ify the GOP brought to the Republican cookout Reps Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), Burgess Owens (R-Utah), John James (R-Mich.) and Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), all of whom did a fine job of joining Scott (R-S.C.) in spreading the good word that “America is not a racist country,” President Donald Trump is not a racist president, and that the Democratic Party — which currently has 62 Black members of Congress in the House and four in the Senate — is the Party of slavery and the KKK.

McCarthy seemed pretty satisfied with himself for helping to bring the GOP’s Black friend count from one to five over a few years.

“I’d just become leader, and I’m excited, and President Trump’s there, and I look over at the Democrats, and they stand up — they look like America,” McCarthy said at a Times book event in 2023. “We stand up. We look like the most restrictive country club in America.”

So, by 2022, the GOP no longer looked like “the most restrictive country club in America.” Instead, it looked like “the most restrictive country club in America” to do the bare minimum in filling a DEI quota, which is, well, ironic.

But now, Owens is set to retire after being redistricted out of his seat, Hunt is retiring after failing to secure his party’s nomination for the Senate, and James and Donalds are running for governor in their states. So, the GOP is back down to one Black guy, and even Scott at least began to receive his negro wake-up call after President Donald Trump posted a racist image of Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as apes, which Scott described as “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” 

The thing is, I’m not even here to argue that the GOP is intentionally driving away all of its Black congressmen. Hell, the Republican Party has never been more desperate for Black companionship than it has been for the last few election cycles. But when only four of your Party’s 217 House members are Black, and only one of its 53 U.S. senators is Black, and that’s literally the Blackest GOP Congress the nation has seen since the Reconstruction era, you can’t be surprised when all the Black Republican gains that were made over the last decade disappear into Caucasian oblivion, once again.

So, what’s the problem? Why is the Republican Congress still having such a hard time collecting Black loyalists? Are people just not buying that the Democratic Party is the party of the KKK? Is that because it’s Republican politicians who keep getting outed as KKK affiliates, can’t seem to stop Klan members and other assorted white supremacists from showing up at their rallies in support, and can’t stop former grand wizards like David Duke running for office as a Republican?

Are Black politicians not buying that Democrats are the party of slavery, and could that be because it’s Republicans who run all the former Confederate states, fight to protect Confederate flags and monuments, and make damn sure red states continue to recognize Confederate holidays?

Perhaps the uppity Blacks just aren’t feeling Trump’s constant hate speech against Somalis and Haitians, his anti-DEI propaganda, his push to delete Black history from every federally-controlled park, museum and educational institution in the country, his exclusive acceptance of white refugees and only white refugees, and his administration’s push to address white grievances and only white grievances.

Yeah, sorry, McCarthy, but it’s still the “old white party” for a reason. And that’s not a condition that appears to be changing any time soon.

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