How black Republicans are debunking the myth of a voter monolith
For Brad Mole, venturing into Republican politics didn’t start with a sudden awakening to conservatism. It was his religious upbringing and way of life that brought him to the Republican party.
“My faith pushed me more toward policies that better reflected my upbringing,” he said. “I began understanding that the teachings I was raised with were more reflected in a party that not many around me identified with.”
The son of a preacher in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina, Mole is now taking his politics a giant leap forward, challenging the Democrat Joe Cunningham for his US congressional seat.
As analysts debunk the myth of the black voter monolith, some black Republicans are stepping forward to counter stereotypes and assert a political identity very different from the usual assumption that all black Americans are Democrats, especially in the era of Donald Trump.
As one of seven Republicans running for the seat, Mole credits his religious background for his motivations to join the crowded race. Those same traditions are often associated with centrist African American political leanings. But for black Americans like Mole, their conservatism leads some to question whether their political party and preferences actually match their worldview.
“I am the typical black person who voted for Barack Obama, but I then voted for Trump,” he said. “At some point you think for yourself and say: ‘You know what? I’m not voting this person or this ticket just because my grandma or parents did.’”
Ahead of a June Republican primary and the 2020 presidential election, Mole says he is connecting with fellow voters in ways he said speak more to the nuance of conservative cultural traditions.
He is not alone. Kaaryn Walker, president of Black Conservatives for Truth, founded the advocacy group as an outlet for black Americans to connect with one another and draw attention to conservative policy initiatives.
“Sometimes you find that people share the same politics you do, but because of fear or backlash, black people don’t talk about it,” said Walker.
“If you want to see the Republican party be more diverse, you have to see us being active in the party,” she said.
Walker has identified as a conservative for more than 25 years, pointing to her pro-life leanings and support for free market economics. Like Mole, an upbringing steeped in tradition led her to a closer affiliation with Republicans than the Democratic party her family typically supported.
In her outreach, she often challenges others to rethink how Democratic platforms represent black values.
“We engage on policy and that’s when people start seeing distinctions,” she said. “People start seeing other like-minded conservatives and say: ‘My policy and mindset doesn’t fit the Democratic party and that’s OK.’”In the decades since the notorious Southern Strategy saw white southerners flock to the Republican party in the wake of the successes of the civil rights movement, black voters have maintained close ties with Democrats that has remained steady throughout much of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Modern black Republicans aren’t a particularly new phenomenon, though. Several conservatives, including the former Republican party chair Michael Steele and former secretary of state