The GOP must try to win over African-Americans

It's time to ditch the color-blind idealism and find the black interests conservatives can serve

Rand Paul in Detroit
(Image credit: (Bill Pugliano/ Getty Images))

For the good of their party and for the good of the republic, Republicans must genuinely reach out to and successfully attract black voters.

The GOP is not off to a good start. In South Carolina, where blacks make up 28 percent of voters, so few blacks voted in the 2012 GOP primary that it was statistically impossible to find among them a preference for any of the party’s candidates.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.