Republican Party still struggles to bring in minority votes

ST. PAUL, minn.

Scanning the thousands of delegates and spectators at the Republican National Convention on Monday, the handful of ethnic minorities in Virginia's delegation didn't see many faces that resembled theirs.

But in conversations, those delegates say they feel at home among fellow Republicans, united by principles, beliefs and devotion to country, if not by race.

"I think the Republican Party historically has been diversified," said Chuck Smith, a black delegate from Virginia Beach.

"The trick is trying to convince a lot of our minority brothers and sisters, particularly African Americans, that this is our home party. This is where it all began. This is where African Americans were first elected to the Senate and the House of Representatives," Smith said, referring to blacks elected to Congress during the 19th-century Reconstruction era.

History is one thing; the present is another for Republicans who continue to struggle with bringing minorities into the fold.

At the Xcel Energy Center convention site, there were gender and age differences among delegates, as well as faces of varying beige and brown hues speckled throughout the crowd.

Though at this presidential convention, like many before it, white is the skin color that stands out among the sea of red, white and blue.

And if the convention crowd is a microcosm of the broader GOP coalition, then it largely remains one of Caucasian homogeny despite efforts by party elders to expand its scope to include members of other ethnicities.

"You see very few," said Kamelsh Dave, a first-time delegate from Chester who came to this country from India in 1980, about the lack of minorities at the convention.

Like several minority delegates from Virginia, Dave said the appeal of the GOP is its message of self-reliance leading to success. It is a viewpoint that he believes could have meaning to minority voters if branded properly.

"Just because you have the right cause, the right reason and the right strategy, it may not be sold easily," he said. " The product is great, but the party has not done a great job packaging and marketing."

For all their efforts, the GOP has not perfected its minority pitch.

In 2004, President George W. Bush lost the black vote by a margin of nearly 9 to 1, and the Latino and Asian vote by narrower splits of about 5 to 4.

He still won re-election, securing victory with heavy support among whites, who made up 77 percent of all voters four years ago, according to exit polls. Minorities accounted for 23 percent of voters.

Winning elections with that kind of ratio has been an effective formula for the GOP, though some party leaders quietly worry about the effect that projected population shifts will have on their electoral margins. Recent Census Bureau figures predict America will have a majority minority population within 24 years.

One recent attempt to recruit blacks to run for federal and state offices was spearheaded by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman around 2006. The effort is generally seen as a failure.

At the insistence of state Party Chairman Jeff Frederick, whose mother is Colombian, a similar push is under way in Virginia.

Though not specifically aimed at attracting minorities to run as Republicans, the campaign seeks to expand outreach by tasking minority party members to focus on recruitment among members of their respective ethnic groups.

Republicans such as Smith insist the party must remain consistent with its recruitment efforts and not just revive them in election years.

Seconding that notion is David Ramadan, who is in St. Paul, Minn., this week but is not a delegate.

"The Republican Party stands for what minorities stand for: the American dream," said Ramadan, an Arab American from Northern Virginia. "It stands for chances to all with no discrimination."

That message has been a hard sell for the GOP, which lags behind in the battle for minority voters.

The Democrats' nomination last week of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama as their presidential candidate - the first black candidate by a major party in the nation's history - sent a strong message of their party's progressiveness.

At their convention last week in Denver, Democrats also touted the diversity of their national and Virginia delegation. Minorities were 44 percent of total delegates, while 38 of Virginia's 101 delegates fit that description.

In contrast, determining the level of GOP diversity at the convention is difficult; national organizers and state officials declined to provide demographic data about delegates.

Still, Republicans are trying.

GOP nominee and U.S. Sen. John McCain's campaign has made welcoming gestures to African Americans and other minority voters, including a subtle one Monday.

The first three people on stage at the convention - to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the national anthem and offer the opening prayer - were minorities.

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com