August 17, 2016 The Skanner Page 9
News
New Hires at the RNC Ready to Court the African American Vote
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA News Wire
Contributor
D
ue to unprecedent-
ed poor polling
numbers in the
African American
community, Republicans
have ramped up their
efort to court Black vot-
ers.
The party has hired
four new Black staf
members in a move that
they hope will not only
help GOP Presidential
nominee Donald Trump
in the general election
this November, but that
will also bolster the par-
ty’s long-term eforts to
gain support among Af-
“
ed oicials and commu-
nity activists; Shannon
Reeves, a professor of po-
litical science at Alabama
A & M University and
former national direc-
tor of state and local de-
velopment for the RNC;
Elroy Sailor, the founder
and CEO of the J.C. Watts
Companies; and Georgia
State University senior
Leah LeVell, whose fa-
ther Bruce LeVell is the
chairman of the National
Diversity Coalition for
Trump.
Two of the new hires,
Bell and Sailor, spoke at
length with the NNPA
News Wire, expressing
optimism that they can
help turnaround the re-
AP PHOTO/PAUL HOLSTON
Strategy focuses on outreach at HBCUs, stressing economic empowerment and criminal justice reform
Ashley D. Bell speaks with The Associated Press Aug. 9 in Washington.
Bell, who was one of the 18 black delegates at the Republican National
Convention in Cleveland, has been hired as an RNC senior strategist
and national director of African-American engagement.
their ideas for criminal
justice reform.
“HBCUs are a very big
It’s been eight years since a Republican was in
the [White House]…we have to make sure that
the Black vote is competitively fought for
rican Americans, a vot-
ing bloc that for decades
has mostly voted for
Democrats.
The new staf mem-
bers are Ashley Bell,
who helped to launch the
20/20 Leaders of Ameri-
ca, a bipartisan group of
African American elect-
cord low polling num-
bers that show Trump
currently receiving just
one percent of the Black
vote.
They also spelled out
their mission to court
students at historically
Black college and uni-
versities — HBCUs — and
focus of ours and part of
our job is to make sure
we engage HBCUs,” said
Bell. “We don’t have a lot
of time, but HBCUs can
help get the economy to
where it needs to be and
we recognize that.”
They also recognize
that criminal justice re-
We honor the many
accomplishments of
African Americans.
form is a critical issue
for the Black community.
“We have to make sure
that America can turn
the page from the cur-
rent mass incarceration
system,” added Bell. “If
we talk about communi-
ties being devastated by
a failed criminal justice
system where brothers
and sisters are being
disenfranchised
and
not being able to ind a
job, we talk about ixing
the criminal justice sys-
tem.”
The solution, Bell said,
is the creation of more
entrepreneurs in the
Black community and
improving the capital
gains tax which would al-
low these entrepreneurs
to perform activities like
buying houses to ix up
and resell for proit.
Bell noted that Con-
gress has put forward a
number of compelling
ideas, like economic em-
powerment zones and
transforming education
to create a marketplace
where schools have to
compete for students.
“I think the economic
ideas and education op-
portunities [put forth by
the GOP] are very speciic
to the Black community,”
said Bell. “It’s been eight
years since a Republi-
can was in the [White
House]…we have to make
sure that the Black vote
is competitively fought
for.”
Sailor said it’s import-
ant to remember that no
party has exclusivity on
having 100 percent of the
best models for America.
“I’ve been a Republican
for over 25 years and
I have seen the end re-
sults of some very good
policies and new models
that have proven suc-
cessful in terms of cre-
ating opportunities and
solving old problems in
our community,” he said.
“For example, former
Congressman J.C. Watts
authored the American
Community
Renewal
and New Markets Act,
which was signed into
law by President Clinton.
This legislation helped
to empower faith-based
organizations, and spur
development in our com-
munities.”
Among the new team’s
assignments, Bell will
serve as Senior Strategist
and National Director of
African American Polit-
ical Engagement and fo-
cus on winning elections
for 2016. Reeves will
serve as Senior Advisor
to the RNC’s Political De-
partment and will focus
on the X’s and O’s of pol-
itics – the data, and voter
identiication. Sailor has
the job of Senior Advisor
to the Chairman and will
focus on infrastructure,
institutional growth and
sustainability.
Read the rest of this story at
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