“I think we need to do that. I think it’s a mistake that’s been made. We’ve got to go and compete for the minds and hearts and the votes of everybody in this country no matter who they are. I think what we’ve had is one party takes a group of people for granted, and the other party has not paid attention to them. I think our presidential [candidates] need to do this. It’s one thing I regret not having done like I wanted to in 2012.”source
Big problem for GOP. Most important #CPAC2014 panel. Topic: minority outreach. View: largely empty room. pic.twitter.com/LQKQ0QwwVc
— John Hudak (@JohnJHudak) March 6, 2014About ten minutes into the panel, I snapped a photo (shown above) of a largely empty ballroom. The lack of attendance for the panel is a huge loss and missed opportunity for participants. CPAC brings together some of the Republican Party’s most passionate, engaged, and eager members. The people who attend the meetings run campaigns, volunteer for issue-based efforts and candidates’ campaigns. They are leadership in an army of grassroots conservatism. The panel of Gillespie, Roe, Sailor and Woodson was there to address a basic question: how do we grow our ranks in areas where we traditionally underperform?
The advice was solid. Woodson explained that one problem is that “we don’t have a ground game” particularly in minority neighborhoods. Sailor eloquently noted a key to Republican success: “We don’t have to abandon our existing friends to make new ones.” The message was simple. Republicans don’t necessarily have to change their values. They have to change how they talk about the issues and who they talk to. That takeaway is not a tall order, but something doable, something digestible. And, most notably, there are people in the party who know how to do it.
Had people voted last November at the same rates they did in 2004, when black turnout was below its current historic levels, Republican Mitt Romney would have won narrowly, according to an analysis conducted for The Associated Press.Also...
Census data and exit polling show that whites and blacks will remain the two largest racial groups of eligible voters for the next decade. Last year's heavy black turnout came despite concerns about the effect of new voter-identification laws on minority voting, outweighed by the desire to re-elect the first black president.
Overall, the findings represent a tipping point for blacks, who for much of America's history were disenfranchised and then effectively barred from voting until passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.Times are changing.
But the numbers also offer a cautionary note to both Democrats and Republicans after Obama won in November with a historically low percentage of white supporters. While Latinos are now the biggest driver of U.S. population growth, they still trail whites and blacks in turnout and electoral share, because many of the Hispanics in the country are children or non-citizens.
African-Americans made up 12% of the eligible electorate this year, yet they accounted for 13% of total votes cast. This is the second presidential election in a row in which black voters “over-performed” (they did so in 2008 by the same proportion).So no matter much the GOP tried to suppressed the vote, their plans were easily spoiled.
Whites’ turnout rate—votes cast as a share of eligible voters—declined in both 2012 and 2008, though whites’ share of the eligible electorate is also shrinking.
Whereas other minority groups have seen increased electoral clout largely because of population growth, blacks’ growing share of the vote in recent presidential elections is due to mounting turnout rates.
More Hispanics and Asian-Americans voted in 2012 than ever before, but their turnout rates continue to lag behind that of the general public.
