Race in America

More young blacks ready to embrace GOP
Some cast aside traditional loyalties
By Kaitlin Bell, Globe Correspondent | August 22, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Adam Hunter, an ambitious law student with bright eyes, an easy smile, and plenty of charisma, seems practically destined for politics.

A half century ago, his grandfather helped register blacks living in rural South Carolina to vote. Hunter's father, born on a tobacco farm and taught in segregated schools, was inspired by the civil rights movement to join the Democratic Party. His parents have both headed the local Democratic committee in their New Jersey town, and Hunter himself worked as a campaign volunteer before he was old enough to vote.

Hunter, 22, is a first-year law student at Howard University, a historically black campus with a long record of liberal activism. He has political ambitions of his own -- but not with the Democrats.

Instead, Hunter, who as an undergraduate headed Howard's chapter of College Republicans, sees himself as part of a younger generation of African-Americans. He is ready to cast aside traditional loyalties to the Democratic Party and forge his own political identity.

''My father and I are not that different, ideologically, but if you look at the time period we grew up in, that's where we're different," Hunter said. ''My foundation doesn't make me beholden to the Democratic Party. To me there's nothing more undemocratic than the idea that you have to vote for a Democrat or don't vote at all come Election Day."

Hunter is one of a growing number of young African-Americans leaving the party of their parents and grandparents in favor of the GOP -- or choosing not to have a political affiliation at all.

A July Gallup Poll of minorities' political opinions indicated that black voters overwhelmingly favor the Democratic Party, and the percentage of African-Americans who consider themselves Republicans lingers at about 9 percent. However, according to the poll, of those blacks who vote GOP, most are under age 50 -- a generational shift that could be an opportunity for Republicans and a headache for Democrats.

Democrats have had a decades-long hammerlock on the black vote, stemming largely from the civil rights battles of the 1960s. Senator John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, received an estimated 88 percent of the African-American vote in 2004, 2 percent less than Al Gore won in 2000, according to exit polls.

Jeffrey M. Jones, who conducted the Gallup Poll, said it is too early to tell whether a slight increase in young black voters identifying with the Republican Party represents a long-term trend. But if those numbers rise another 5 or 10 percent next year, people should take note.

''There's a lot of hints out there that something is going on," he said. ''Nothing is totally conclusive, but the more hints there are out there, the more evidence you have that this could be real."

However, Republicans, billing themselves as ''the party of Lincoln," have launched a high-profile campaign to chip away at what has been a reliable voting block for Democrats. While older black voters still have strong attachments to the Democratic party, political specialists say, younger African-Americans are less likely to be bound by tradition: They grew up in an integrated society, they don't have personal memories of the civil rights movement, and they are more focused on entrepreneurship and opportunity, two of the GOP's selling points.

''The question people are going to have is, who wants to build on the civil right movement's success -- closing the wealth gap, closing the health gap, offering people real access to opportunity?" Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in an interview.

He reiterated his pitch to black voters: ''Give us a chance, and we'll give you a choice."

Hunter said he's well aware of the Democratic Party's history of helping minorities; he doesn't think that means they deserve his vote 40 years after key civil rights battles. Other issues are more important to him, he says: privatizing Social Security, lowering taxes, and business development. ''I strongly believe that there should be options for Americans -- rich, poor, old, young -- to invest," he said.

As some black voters drift toward the GOP, Republicans have accused the Democratic Party of expedient politics: ignoring a core constituency until it's time to vote, rather than nurturing African-Americans between elections. Some African-American Democrats share that complaint.

''I think there's an extreme danger" of losing black votes to the GOP, said Lamell McMorris, an African-American political consultant who heads the Washington-based Perennial Strategies. Democrats are still relying on their civil rights record and are not pitching new ideas to young, professional blacks seeking to build businesses and personal wealth.

''As time goes on, you're dealing with a generation of individuals who, in their mind, are very far removed from the civil rights movement," said McMorris, who is 32. ''You cannot keep going on this romanticized, ideological civil rights agenda and think you can reach out to African-Americans of my generation.' "

''What the Democrats have not been able to do is to come up with a new vision, a new voice, a new perspective, a way to reach out to younger members of the African-American community," he said. ''In that area, I think the Republicans have done a better job."

Hunter said he's been inspired by the Republican Party's efforts to reach out to black voters. He praised Mehlman, noting that the RNC chairman accepted the chapter's invitation to speak at Howard last spring. It was one of 17 appearances Mehlman has made around the country to recruit black voters. A GOP spokeswoman said Mehlman has held monthly strategy sessions with a group of prominent African-Americans and is seeking to recruit more black candidates for elected office.

But at Howard, where allegiances to Democrats run deep, recruiting Republicans took some work, Hunter said.

During his freshman year, Hunter said, he resurrected Howard's chapter of College Republicans, which had been dormant for more than a decade, with hopes of injecting some political diversity into campus discourse. About 60 or 70 students signed up for the group, he said, but only about 10 or 15 were committed members.

Although Hunter has considered himself a Republican since junior high school and had worked on GOP campaigns before graduating high school, he said not all Howard students were as eager to wear their political affiliation on their sleeves.

''On a black campus, it's hard to find people to stand up and say, one, I'm Republican, and two, I'm ready to go out and lead other students," Hunter said. But he noted that Howard's administration supported him by sponsoring debates with other campus political groups. Some administrators and professors said privately that they shared his political views.

Mehlman acknowledged that it will be difficult to tap into the Democrats' most reliable constituency. But he noted that in close elections, even a few percentage points can make a difference. Republicans doubled their support among African-American voters last year in Ohio -- a critical battleground Bush won by 2 percentage points -- and nearly doubled support among black voters in Michigan, Mehlman said.

Hunter's own future in the Republican Party may come later; right now, he's focused on law school and plans to become a corporate lawyer. Eventually, he hopes to return to New Jersey, he said, and run for governor or the US Senate. But it will take more than a few young people like himself for the GOP to truly make a difference.

''The Republican Party needs to work hard to understand the issues that are important to the community," he said. ''Funding higher education, home ownership, African famine, genocide, AIDS -- there's still a lot of work to be done."