Conservative Candidate Provides Template for Winning Black Votes – Opinion

Last month’s gubernatorial election in Virginia was seen as a preview of how the 2022 midterm elections will pan out. This election showed Republicans that they are well-positioned to retake both the House and the Senate. A recent report suggested that the GOP could win governorships in key states as well.

If the GOP takes note, there was another election. Jalen Johnson was elected City Commissioner of Ward Two in Albany.

This is why Johnson’s local race is so significant. Johnson ran for office as a conservative candidate, in an area where 70% of the population is black. Johnson’s victory and campaign could be used as a template by other conservative candidates who want to win elections in black- and brown-rich areas. Johnson shared his story about how he won this important win with me.

Johnson is 22 years old and a black man. He has been actively involved in politics since childhood. He will be given enormous responsibilities in his new position. He explained that the city commissioner “oversees all the government operations” and will “have one vote out of seven to be able to authorize different things in the budget for the entire city.”

He continued:

“The constituents will always call their Commissioner whenever they have any local direct issues that impact them. Because I was a Washington federal worker, this is why the position is so crucial. I know how much gridlock we have in Congress, where it’s all about what party you are. There will be no compromise between our party and theirs. If you’re a Republican, the Democrats don’t want to work with you and vice versa. People feel at home on the local level. [what] happens in their community immediately.”

Johnson realized quickly that he was a conservative despite knowing most of those around him to be Democrats. Johnson said,

“I grew up in a household where I heard people directly talk about being Democrat…but I didn’t really know what it meant. The only thing I remember was that there was some groupthink associated with my middle and late elementary years. Nobody even the teachers at school, nobody could break off from saying that ‘oh, yeah. I’m a Democrat.’ They can never give you any rationale.”

Later, he decided to look into other ideologies. He brought in former Georgia Lt. Governor. Casey Cagle. Nathan Deal. “At that time, Nathan Deal was the man. He was a Republican, and he was the man for black voters,” he recalled. “He brought forth change with criminal justice reform. His efforts in lowering taxes were a huge success. That was the beginning of all that conversation. Right. His popularity was so great that black voters loved him. And he was a Republican.”

He explained: “I was like, ‘Well my family at home is talking about Republicans are bad, and we’ve always voted Democrat. Well, look at this Republican doing something good.’”

Then he started to explore conservative ideology further and found it resonated strongly with him. “I literally just started to develop these ideas based on economic freedom, Liberty, the individual is the greatest fighting force. The government is not something I believe in. I mean, my entire platform was let the government stay out of your life as much as possible.”

He explained how he managed to successfully sell the conservative message of his party to an audience that was often skeptical about Republicans. He stated that he emphasized areas in which he knew black Americans would differ from the Democrats’ message. He pointed out the “reason Virginia turned red was that Terry McCauliffe said that parents should not have a say so in their kids’ education.”

He continued:

“That is a huge no-no. Black voters don’t like this, too. And that was a message I brought my constituents as well that I’m the freedom candidate, I’m the pro safety candidate, and I’m the pro-choice in education. And people like that, it resonated with them.”

Johnson mentioned, interestingly enough: His party affiliation was one of his most important factors.

“Now, did I run with an ‘R’ next to my name? No, I did not, because the city commission race is in Georgia, you don’t have to choose a party affiliation. So technically, I ran as a nonpartisan candidate, but it was well known that I’m a Republican because of my previous affiliation.”

Johnson was a conservative candidate but he knew how to communicate his message to voters. Johnson stated:

I stated that I was a proponent of freedom. It was important that there be more police officers in the community. My belief is in limited government. They understood that my belief in dignity and hard work, restoring honor and integrity, and working for the common good and not receiving government handouts was what I meant. It resonated with them, and it was true, I spoke to dozens upon dozens of people, particularly older black men.

Johnson acknowledged that “If they would have known that I was a Republican on paper…maybe that conversation would have went a little bit different,” but also noted that “These people agreed with me based on the ideals and the principles that I was discussing without the [Republican] label.”

He added: “So they agree with limited government. They are supportive of the dignity and honor that comes from hard work. They are supportive of strong public safety and the protection of our youth. But they just don’t like when you put an “R” in front of it.”

Johnson was asked by me what advice he would offer other conservative candidates who want to win black votes. Johnson responded:

My advice is to just “show up.” You can outwork your opponent every day. I believe the most important thing is to be heard and take your time.

He explained that when “you show up to their door and you actually talk to them and hear them out, those people will go to the ballot and be a solid majority voter for you.”

Johnson was also critical of some right-leaning politicians who only lip service to reaching minority voters, but do not take any action. Johnson said that:

“I think showing up is enough. I’m sick of all of these grift groups out there that act like they go out and register voters to show up. Republicans, Conservatives, whatever. It’s half of the battle to show up. Stacy Abrams was the one who did it. It’s half of the battle to show up. If you show up and listen to these folks, you will have a lot more in common.”

Our conversation was focused on showing up and he campaigned to make that a key theme. Johnson approached voters and knocked on their doors to solicit their support. Johnson’s most notable step to win support was to register new voters, rather than merely trying to win over existing voters. He declared:

“So there’s a lot of people out there my age that are young black men that I went to high school with that I knew probably didn’t have anybody registered in the vote. So I knew the importance of rallying those votes because the way that I think of it, the way I think everybody should think about it is that every election year, there’s going to be hundreds of thousands of new eligible.”

The new city commissioner also brought up the fact that most of the new voters he registered were younger citizens – a demographic that Republicans have struggled to reach. He said he had “engaging conversations” on a personal level with younger individuals and focused on educating them on how local government affects their lives. “I was like, ‘Hey, you do realize that if you decide to buy a house in the next couple of years and you settle down here in Albany, the thing that you do as far as your property taxes, as far as your local government, you do realize that affects you directly, right?’” he said.

He explained that most of these individuals did not understand how “these local ordinances literally directly affect them,” and when they realized it would only take a few minutes to register, “they were even more happy.”

Johnson’s campaign is a prime example of how right-leaning candidates can win in black areas. Although conservatives believe it is impossible to win these voters over, Johnson’s campaign shows that this can be possible if people put the effort in.

Black voters becoming increasingly unhappy with the Democratic Party offer the GOP an opportunity to re-engage black and brown communities. This can only be achieved if Republicans abandon the defeatist mindset that has dominated Republican politics for many decades. Now the question is, will the old Party of Lincoln be willing to put forth a sustained effort?