In a More Diverse America, A Mostly White Convention

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Ask the Delegates

Among delegates on the floor of the Republican National Convention, one message was loud and clear - supporters of McCain-Palin consider the Republican ticket one of change.

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Only a few years ago, Republicans talked publicly about the party's aspirations to diversify -- to win a quarter of the black vote by 2008, party leaders said, and half by 2020. Not since Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed his New Deal programs in the 1930s had Republicans won more than about 15 percent of the black vote, but they had reason to hope earlier this decade. President Bush won 11 percent of blacks' votes in 2004, after capturing 8 percent in 2000.

The party has also made a concerted effort to court Hispanics, but its electoral gains have been diminished by the hard-line stance many Republicans have taken on immigration. In 2004, Bush won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote; a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed McCain with the support of 31 percent of Latinos.

"We have to make a better case to the Hispanic voter that the Republican Party has something to offer other than a deportation slip," Davis said.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank, does not track Hispanic delegates, and convention organizers said they will not provide numbers until at least after the convention. According to a CBS-New York Times poll released Sunday, 5 percent of delegates are Hispanic, the lowest percentage at a Republican convention since 1996.

It was at their convention in Philadelphia in 2000 that Republicans started to make more direct appeals to black voters. On the convention's opening night, Gen. Colin L. Powell urged the party to reach out to blacks and other minorities in a "sustained effort." There was also a live video of a black preacher from a Philadelphia church, followed by a gospel choir performance on stage.

At the party's 2004 convention, Bush highlighted programs to increase loans to African American businesses and facilitate minority home ownership.

Ken Mehlman, then chairman of the Republican National Committee, traveled on a "conversations with the community" tour in 2005 and spoke with predominantly black audiences.

In 2006, the Republican Party supported three promising African Americans in their campaigns for office: Steele for Senate, Lynn Swann for Pennsylvania governor and Ken Blackwell for governor of Ohio. All three lost in a year that was bad for Republicans across the country.

A win in any of those elections could have transformed the party's relationship with black voters, Republicans said. Ever since Oklahoman J.C. Watts decided not to run for reelection to the House in 2002, black Republicans have lacked a role model in conservatism. A black Republican elected to high office, North Carolina delegate Tim Johnson said, would "make brothers understand that this isn't the whites-only party."

"That's when the momentum really shifted, losing those elections," said Alex-St. James, chairman of the African American Republican Leadership Council. "After that, it's like the Democrats were trying harder."

Said Steele: "Right now, the party is in a rhythm of looking at attracting African Americans on a cyclical basis, before each election. We have to get into the rhythm of attracting African Americans on a daily basis. That strategy has to be inculcated into the operation of the RNC. Right now, it's not part of our lifeblood."

Steele saw the problem firsthand from the stage Wednesday night. The Joint Center reported that the number of black Republican delegates declined from a record 167 in 2004 to this year's 36. According to the think tank, 24 state delegations at the Xcel Energy Center have no black members.