Artur Davis: "The Republican Party Won't Make Big Gains With Blacks. It Should Go After Hispanics & Working-Class Whites"

From The Daily Caller, about the moderate-conservative Republican: "Davis explained that even if the GOP picked up a noteworthy and capable black politician, the party should not expect to garner more than about 30 percent of the black vote. Instead of focusing on African-Americans, Davis said, the GOP should target Latinos and working-class white voters. 'Republicans are going to have to strengthen our appeal to blue collar voters who, frankly have been very negatively impacted by the economy in the last four years and who disagree with Barack Obama on a range of cultural issues,' Davis said, noting that blue collar workers in the decisive industrial states voted for Obama because they saw Republicans as 'unacceptable....economic royalist' defenders of Wall Street."

More: "Davis stressed the need for Republicans to recover their support among Latinos, noting that it will be impossible for Republicans to win states like Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada without the Latino vote. 'I think the Republican Party is going to have to start talking about immigration in a different way. Too many in the Republican Party talk about immigration as a threat to the culture. Too many in the Republican Party talk about immigration as a threat to America having a particular identity. It is doubly important, because unlike African-Americans, many Hispanics are conservative,' he added. 'Unlike African-Americans, many Hispanics — many Hispanic businessmen do not support a strong, aggressive role for government.'"

Booker Rising response: I side-eye any black person who argues that a political party shouldn't appeal to fellow black voters, as though black folks don't matter. This is especially since President Obama won't be on the ballot in 2016 (although another black candidate may be a contender).

Besides, it is incorrect that there isn't a significant black population that is potentially open to a Republican appeal. While its study needs to be updated, the Pew Research Center has found that 21% of black Americans desire a smaller government providing fewer social services. Gallup has since found that 29% of black Americans self-identify as "conservative". While I consider the Gallup result to be suspicious as "conservative" is not defined, multiple polls are showing that there is black support that the GOP could potentially tap. I cannot be the only individual who has seen these polls, so the next question must be: why isn't the Republican Party finding out more about these individuals? Are they mostly male or female, median age range, educational level, income level, household type, what region of the country and states do they tend to reside, religious background, why they mainly vote Democratic and what would get them to vote Republican, what kind of cars do they drive, what magazines and newspapers do they read, what TV shows do they watch, etc.? You know, the sort of information that the Democratic Party collects on its voters?

While Mr. Davis sniffs at it, the GOP garnering even 30% of the black vote ain't nothing to sneeze at. Let's not forget that there are still significantly more black voters than Hispanic voters (13% vs. 10% of the electorate). Had the Republican Party gotten 30% of the black vote on Tuesday, their guy Mitt Romney would be preparing for his upcoming inaugural ball.