Historic gains for GOP following election of Black candidates

At least five Black Republican lawmakers will serve concurrently in Congress next year, a number the GOP has not seen since the early 1870s.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Reps. Burgess Owens of Utah, Byron Donalds of Florida,  Reps.-elect John James of Michigan and Wesley Hunt of Texas will serve in the 118th Congress together.

Mr. Hunt was recruited by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California to run in Texas’ 38th Congressional District.

Mr. James, who graduated from West Point with Mr. Hunt and roomed with him at the military academy, won the race for Michigan’s 10th Congressional District. 

Janiyah Thomas, the Black media affairs manager at the Republican National Committee, heralded the “new group of diverse leaders in the party.”

“Under the leadership of RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Republicans have been making inroads with Black voters by showing up in our communities and listening to Black voters at our RNC community centers,” she said in a statement to The Washington Times. “The Republican National Committee has made minority engagement a top priority and it is paying off. America is lucky to have these newly elected officials that will restore our country”

Although the number is small compared to Black Democrats who had 55 Black members from congressional districts and two delegates from the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the 117th Congress, it is still a new highwater mark for GOP diversity on Capitol Hill.

Horace Cooper, chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board, said that the significant gains by Black conservatives are evidence that the “freedom message is penetrating Black America.”

“It’s family, it’s faith. It’s personal responsibility that are going to solve the problems in the Black American community, and now with new leaders in Washington. That idea is likely to get a number of proponents to tackle and push,” he said.

The first five Black members of Congress, all Republicans, were sworn into the 42nd Congress in 1871. Their ranks increased to seven by 1873. That remained until the beginning of the 45th Congress in 1877, when the number of Black Republicans decreased to just three lawmakers.

That number continued to dwindle following the end of Reconstruction in the South. Between 1901 to 1929, no Black GOP lawmakers served in Congress.

After Rep. Oscar Stanton DePriest of Illinois left office in 1935, Congress had no Black Republicans until Rep. Gary Franks of Connecticut took the oath of office in 1991.

The number of Black Democrats in Congress has grown steadily every decade since 1935, starting with Rep. Arthur Mitchell of Illinois.

Back in March, the National Republican Congressional Committee this year counted 81 Black candidates running as Republicans in 72 congressional districts, up from 27 in the 2020 election cycle.

The NRCC called the number at the time “a record in the modern era” for the party.