Does MAGA Have Room for Black Republicans?
It’s not easy to succeed as a Black conservative politician, but better representation could help the GOP cement its gains with non-White voters.
Byron Donalds of Florida.
Photographer: Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty ImagesBlack voters marginally, but meaningfully, shifted toward the GOP in 2024, helping President Donald Trump win a second term. Yet few Black people are in the upper echelons of his cabinet or the Republican party more broadly. A crop of new candidates could change that — and change the party’s relationship with Black voters.
Currently, there are four Black Republicans running in high-profile statewide races, some with Trump’s backing. All face a tricky tightrope of racial politics in the Trump era. Florida Congressman Byron Donalds is Trump’s handpicked candidate to replace Governor Ron DeSantis. In Virginia, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears is running to succeed Governor Glenn Youngkin. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is running for the retiring Mitch McConnell’s seat in the US Senate. And in Michigan, Republican Congressman John James announced a bid to replace the term-limited Governor Gretchen Whitmer.