Tensions flare at Atlanta-area event as Black Republicans urge Black men to ditch Democrats
Tensions flare at Atlanta-area event as Black Republicans urge Black men to ditch Democrats
FAIRBURN, Ga. — On the eve of the first presidential debate, two of the most prominent Black Republicans in Congress gathered in a deep blue suburb of Atlanta to mobilize Black male voters and make a pitch for why they should consider voting Republican.
In a two-hour discussion, a crowd of close to 100, mostly Black men, sipped on cocktails and smoked cigars on Wednesday night as they filled a local cigar lounge to hear Reps. Wesley Hunt (R-Tex.) and Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) lay out their positions on everything from immigration and school choice to the future of Black families and Black conservatism.
The event, billed as “Congress, Cognac and Cigars” and moderated by former ESPN host Sage Steele, was the second in a series of gatherings about why voting Republican benefits the Black community, and part of a broader outreach effort to shore up support among Black voters for former president Donald Trump as he runs for a second term.
But the questions and repeated interruptions from attendees throughout the event put on display that while many Black men in the room and across the country might be disenchanted with President Biden, they aren’t automatically voting for Trump this fall. Instead, Donalds and Hunt, serving as messengers for the Republican Party and Trump campaign surrogates, were faced with uncomfortable conversations from a largely Black audience with complex ideologies — some who will never vote for Trump, some who are undecided and open to hearing them out and others looking for fellow Black conservatives.
And for as tense as it got, that’s what they wanted.
Jason Reynolds, right, and other attendees, listen to speakers during the event. (Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post)
“The worst thing we could ever do was to not show up,” said Hunt, who organized the event at Studio Cigar Lounge in this Atlanta suburb. “But what I do want you to understand is this: I heard you. I got you … I know that people aren’t going to hear our voices and vote President Trump right now. Maybe you won’t, I hope you do. But maybe you won’t.”
Donalds, who is on Trump’s shortlist for running mate picks, added: “I don’t care about optics, man. I care about making sure that we are standing on … like what my 13-year old-said, ‘we’re standing on business.’ That’s what I care about.”
Polls show that Biden’s support among Black voters, the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituency, has softened in battleground states like Georgia. And Republicans are hoping to seize on that shakiness, particularly with outreach to Black men. Some Republican leaders and operatives acknowledge they’re not vying to get a majority of Black voters — something they recognize is not going to happen — but even the smallest gains could help ensure a Trump victory in November.
Among the attendees was Warner Knowland, 40, who said he came to the event because he’s undecided about who he’s going to support in the election and is “really open.” He voted for Biden in 2020.
“It’s a lot of things that could be done a lot better, and that’s why I’m saying I’m open,” said Knowland, chief executive of a tech company.
Warner Knowland voted for Biden in 2020 and says he’s undecided about who to support in November. (Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post)
Knowland said he was glad the event offered an opportunity to think through policy issues and the differences of opinions people have. For him, job creation, gun control and crime are top issues that will factor into his decision of who he’ll vote for.
“No one’s perfect. So, there’s gonna be wrong things on the Democratic side and wrong things on the Republican side,” he added. “At the end of the day, I just want the best for my community.”
Jason Reynolds, a retired software executive who supported Biden in 2020, came to the event with a specific question on his mind: Why were Hunt and Donalds among the 192 Republicans who voted for an amendment that would have required a Confederate monument to be reinstated at Arlington National Cemetery?
He yelled out his question when Steele was asking people to name top issues on their mind. He was told to wait until the questions portion of the event to ask — and, when he did, Hunt said he doesn’t celebrate the Confederacy, but recalled how living in barracks named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee during his time in the military, as a Black man, “gave me an appreciation for this country.”
Reynolds, afterward, said the event had given him a lot to think about — but it wasn’t swaying his politics. He said he plans to vote for Biden in November and doesn’t understand why a Black man would support Trump.
Like Reynolds, many Black Americans have taken offense at Trump’s controversial effort to win over Black voters in recent months, including his repeated suggestion that Black voters would gravitate to him because of his indictments and his mug shot.
And building up Black support remains an uphill challenge for Trump, while Biden is also trying to lock up his support among the bloc that helped fuel his candidacy in 2020. An April Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 74 percent of Black registered voters say they will “definitely” or “probably” vote for Biden, while just 14 percent of Black voters say they will definitely or probably support Trump. Among Black men, 19 percent said they will definitely or probably back Trump.
The event eventually became a series of counterarguments and, at times contentious, back-and-forths between attendees and the congressmen. After Hunt and Donalds discussed immigration and railed against Biden’s policies addressing the U.S.-Mexico border, Alan Hill yelled out: “Where’s the Republican bill to fix it?”
Donalds continued explaining what Republicans have proposed and laid out that the United States needs to secure the border and deport people already in the country illegally.
Hill yelled again: “How?”
Donalds began answering, but more questions and interruptions followed until Horace Holden Jr. jumped out of his seat in the back and started yelling at Hill. “Why are you so concerned about people that came here illegally getting amnesty? And when a Black man [goes] on the run for 20 years, when they find him, he don’t get no amnesty,” Holden Jr. said.
Donalds, from the stage, urged: “Fellas, fellas. Chill out for a second.”
Holden Jr. continued yelling at Hill: “We’re talking about our community, not their community. So, stay on topic.”
Horace Holden Jr., left, spars with Alan Hill, right, over the topic of immigration. (Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post)
The event closed out with Donalds taking heat from some attendees over his comment at a gathering earlier this month in Philadelphia that fewer Black families were fractured during the Jim Crow era. Donalds has defended his comments, saying they were taken out of context and he never said that era was better for Black Americans.
Still, attendees pressed him on if he recognized the critique of his word choice.
“Let’s call it what it is. Yes, I’m on the shortlist for the vice presidency. I get that. The reason why my comments were taken that way is because the Joe Biden campaign, which has no answers for what’s actually hurting Black Americans today, they want to take my words and twist my words to say that I want Jim Crow to return,” Donalds said. “That’s crazy talk. I don’t want that.”
Hunt and Donalds have said they don’t expect large swaths of Black voters to vote for Trump this year, but they feel 25 to 30 percent of the vote is feasible for the former president. And they’ve been candid in condemning the Republican Party for not making a concerted effort to court Black voters in the past.
“If there is an indictment on how the party — the Republican Party — has run itself the last 60 years it’s that it never took the time to go engage Black voters and say, ‘There is another way, come listen to us,’” Donalds said.
Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, attended the event and talked to voters before Hunt and Donalds took the stage.
Among those he spoke to and took pictures with was Corey Lea, 53, an independent who said he voted for Biden in 2020 and will be backing Trump this year.
Lea said he recognizes Trump has made racist remarks in the past, but Biden has a history, too, of making racially insensitive comments and has previously praised segregationist senators. And the top reason for throwing his support to Trump is because he feels the Biden administration has been destructive to Black farmers and ranchers — promising them help that has never come.
“If I had to choose today, I have to take Donald Trump,” Lea said. “If I don’t, I will be signing my own death certificate. I have no other choice.”