GOP official: White conservatives would ‘crawl across broken glass’ to vote for a black Republican

DENVER, Colo. — Far from being racist, white Republicans would “crawl across a football field of broken glass” to vote for a black Republican, according to a leading black conservative.

Derrick Wilburn, vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party, told a packed workshop crowd at the Western Conservative Summit that the Republicans-are-racists narrative is “nothing but a lie.”

“The truth is every conservative I know, every Republican I know, everyone I know that falls under the tent that I live under would get on their hands and knees crawl across football field of broken glass and nails in order to cast a vote for Allen West, or Condoleezza Rice, or Ben Carson,” said Mr. Wilburn to enthusiastic applause.

“They’d do it in a heartbeat. Hey, the cuts will heal. We’ve got a country to save,” he said. “But they wouldn’t accept a chauffeured Rolls Royce champagne-and-caviar limousine ride across the street to vote for a white liberal.”

Mr. Wilburn, founder of Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives and American Conservatives of Color, noted that Denver voters will have an opportunity to support at least two black Republicans in November.

El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn bested a five-candidate field in Tuesday’s Colorado GOP Senate primary and will face Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in the Nov. 8 general election.

In Denver, Casper Stockham, an Air Force veteran and radio talk-show host, won the Republican primary in the First Congressional District, pitting him against longtime Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette.

“For years, 60-plus years, the Democratic Party has claimed that we don’t exist,” Mr. Stockham, former president of Americans Conservatives of Color. “This is not real to them. They don’t believe we exist, and we wanted to show them and show the press and show the world that there are black, brown and all colors of conservatives in the Republican Party.”

Denver is a Democratic stronghold, but Mr. Glenn said he plans to campaign heavily in the state capital, which also has Colorado’s largest minority population.

“We’re going to go into Denver. They’re going to think I’m running for the mayor of Denver,” Mr. Glenn said. “They need to understand that as conservatives it shouldn’t matter if you’re a Republican, Democrat or unaffiliated, it should be about freedom. And when we get people focused on the issues, the conservative message will prevail each and every time.”

About 4,000 attendees signed up for the three-day summit, sponsored by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, held at the Colorado Convention Center.