It is obvious enough that the Republican Party lost the black vote in the last two presidential elections. The black voting turn-out was the Obama’s strongest support base and hit a historic high with his election.
But with Barack Obama termed out and no black Democrat candidate in sight, the Republican Party aims to reclaim some of the solid support it enjoyed among black voters after the Civil War.
The GOP has historically won ten percent of the black vote. The Democratic Party has dominated the voter bloc since they began taking control in the wake of the Civil Rights movement.
The key, experts point out, is that Republicans only need to win a few more percentage points to cause a massive disruption in the demographics of voter alignment cause a massive disruption in the demographics of voter alignment. If that were to happen, swing states like Ohio and Florida could become easy GOP wins.
Election history has shown that affluent voters are most likely to vote and black voters at the top of the economic brackets are most likely to vote Republican. This, coupled with a precipitous drop in turnout among black voters without Obama on the ballot, could be the key to victory.
President Gerald Ford was the last Republican presidential candidate to receive at least 15% of the black vote. The GOP aims to turn back the clock in 2016 by reaching out to black voter’s specific concerns. Some of these concerns include but are not limited to safety and economic opportunity.
