Republicans say they're drawing more people of color in Wisconsin, but hurdles remain

This article has been updated to include the number of votes the Republican Party received in majority Black aldermanic districts for the city of Milwaukee.

As Milwaukee rolled out the welcome mat for the first Republican presidential debate and will next year for the party’s national convention, state GOP officials want to do the same for people of color.

The Republicans hope bringing the debate and the convention to Wisconsin will broaden their base among minority voters.

Inroads have been made especially in the last three election cycles, said Gerard Randall, first vice chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

“These efforts require persistence," Randall said. "The steps are incremental.”

Nationally, in 2018, Republicans got 6% of the Black vote, 8% in 2020 and 5% in 2022, according to a Pew Research Center study.

They made bigger gains among Hispanic voters for those same years — 25% in 2018, 36% in 2020 and 39% in 2022.

And in the city of Milwaukee, the GOP did slightly better, capturing 8.4% votes in 2018, 9% in 2020 and 7.8% in 2022 in aldermanic districts that are predominantly Black, according to analysis of census data and election results by John D. Johnson, a research fellow in the Lubar Center at the Marquette University Law School.

In Wisconsin, the state GOP began laying the groundwork to reach people of color three years ago when it opened a satellite office on King Drive in Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood. A Milwaukee south side office in the Hispanic community opened a year later.

In 2020, Republican Julian Bradley became the first Black state senator. He joins Jessie Rodriguez, the first Hispanic immigrant elected in 2013 to the Wisconsin Legislature, and more recently Rachael Cabral-Guevara, elected in the 19th Senate District in November.

Randall, who helped spearhead Milwaukee's bid to land the 2024 Republican National Convention, said both the debate and the convention will allow the state GOP to get the party’s core message out on the economy, jobs and personal safety.

“The Republican Party is one that has demonstrated time and time again that we are better at economic issues than the Democrats are,” he said. “I think if we carry those messages into the upcoming election, people will give us a better look than what they have in the past. And they’ll more often than not vote Republican.”

Democrats point to comments from elections commissioner Bob Spindell as proof GOP isn't sincere

Wisconsin Democrats are skeptical about the sincerity of the Republicans' outreach.

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson of Milwaukee called the overture disingenuous, citing comments made by Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Bob Spindell, a Republican appointee.

Spindell praised decreased turnout in Milwaukee and especially in Black and Latino neighborhoods, arguing the lower voting participation is a result of Republican campaigning that has neutralized Democratic candidates to traditionally Democratic voters.

“I hope the efforts that they are making are not successful,” Johnson said.

Randall pushed back on criticism facing Spindell, who he said has done “yeoman work” for the party. Randall said people will always find fault with the other party’s policies or politics.

“I’m a little disappointed that people feel that way,” he said. “I know the party has made a strong effort to get those voters to the polls. … I know what we’ve done and what we are attempting to and it is certainly not discouraging people from going to the polls.”

'It’s going to take a long time to make inroads' with Black voters for Republicans

Chris Lawrence, a Black man from Milwaukee, considered himself an “Obama Democrat.” He voted for and supported the nation's first Black president, Barack Obama. But his political position changed after watching Ron Paul during the Republican presidential debates in 2011. He joined the GOP that same year.

Lawrence, 36, was impressed by Paul’s economic message, calling him the “Bernie Sanders of the right.” Even as a Democrat, Lawrence opposed high taxes and was pro-business, traits he said he didn’t know were Republican.

“That’s what really drove me to the Republican side — the economic message of free markets, less regulation, more energy production and more entrepreneurship — those economic things that improve people’s daily lives," said Lawrence, a volunteer with the party. "I still believe the Democrats’ message on that is terrible.”

Lawrence said Republicans nationally need to improve their outreach to swing Blacks into the fold. Locally, he said the state has done a good job of outreach and has several Black staffers within the party.

But the effort needs to be consistent beyond just an election cycle and must include a presence in Black media to get the message out, Lawrence said.

Republicans, both nationally and locally, have a lot of work to do since the party alienated Black voters, who historically voted Republican up until the 1960s, Lawrence said. That’s when Republicans decided they could win elections without Black votes, a policy that has trickled down to the local level.

“I think Republicans over many decades conceding Black voters to Democrats and giving them one option has been a large mistake ... and it has caught up to us,” Lawrence said. “It took a long time to get here where we just ignore Black voters. It’s going to take a long time to make inroads.”

The GOP's missing link: Addressing social issues

A challenge to sway Blacks to the Republican Party stems from its inability to address issues facing people of color, says Jamiroquan D. Kittler of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political network led by billionaire Charles Koch.

“I think what’s making Black people afraid to commit to the Republican Party is that the Republican Party doesn’t always address social issues properly,” said Kittler, 27, AFP’s supervisor of grassroots operation.

Though the policies his group supports align with the Republican Party’s principles, they also support social justice issues most Blacks identify with, like justice reform. AFP supports marijuana reform and removing barriers facing individuals released from incarceration.

“We don’t like the fact that people are going to jail for something that other people are selling just right next door to us,” Kittler said.

But his group has been criticized, too. AFP has been called RINOs or “Republican in name only” for supporting “good common-sense policies,” like expungement, Kittler said.

Residents of Milwaukee's north side hear that and feel the Republican Party isn't for them because they need those policies, said Kittler, who grew up in the north side 53216 ZIP code. Some Black voters are issue-oriented and vote for a candidate for one specific issue, whether it's school choice or legalizing marijuana.

“They will go out there and vote for those one- or-two-lined issues, but the outcome is the same,” he said. “It has a positive impact on their families. That’s why they are willing to gamble and bet it all on that one issue. Republicans have to get better at responding to that.”

His advice is to meet Black people where they're at. The Republican Party should go into Milwaukee's Black communities and talk to people dealing with these issues.

“Meet their issues with your solutions, with your common-sense, good, conservative policies," Kittler said. "I'll bet you they will be like, ‘That makes sense.’”

Democrats' Sen. LaTonya Johnson says GOP won't address issues

Johnson, the Democratic state senator from Milwaukee, said Republicans will never be serious about addressing issues pertinent to people of color.

Health disparities, food insecurity, high infant mortality and even gun violence that’s claiming so many young Black lives aren't priorities for the GOP, she said.

Republicans in the Legislature wouldn't work with her on a measure to address gun violence because “that’s not happening in their districts.”

“That’s the response that I got,” she said. “You can’t sincerely make inroads into these communities If you can’t possibly care about their issues. Whether Black, Hispanic, their issue is keeping their children alive."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin GOP says it's drawing people of color, but hurdles remain