PHILADELPHIA — A smoke-drenched cigar bar nestled in an overwhelmingly liberal neighborhood in the bluest city provided an unlikely setting for Republicans to make their case against a group of voters who have long eluded their party: black men.
Two of Donald Trump’s most prominent black surrogates, Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, ventured to Philadelphia on Tuesday night to make their pitch at an event billed as “Congress, Cognac and Cigars.”
Between sips of Remy Martin and Hennessey and puffs on Romeo Y Julieta cigars, the two Republicans tried to convince the racially mixed, largely black audience why more black voters would benefit from leaving the Democratic Party.
“We were better off under the Republicans than the Democrats,” Hunt said, leaning forward in his seat on a raised platform to get closer to the crowd of about 100 people gathered at The Cigar Code. “The reason the Democrats have a hold on the black community is because our parents’ parents keep telling us, ‘You should vote Democrat.’”
“It is up to us in this generation to say: why?” Hunt added.
The intimate panel discussion, moderated by former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, was part of a broader effort by Trump and his allies to reach Black voters in major urban centers and chip away at support for the president. Joe Biden. A major shift would mean a racial realignment between the generations of political parties.
Donalds, who is rumored to be on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, suggested that many black voters are inherently conservative and are slowly coming to realize that the Republican Party better aligns with their values.
“That’s what’s happening in the black community,” Donalds said as the conversation progressed, asking for a refill. “And that’s why you’re seeing the politics of the black community starting to shift back toward a conservative mindset.”
Donalds and Hunt pointed to mounting evidence in public surveys pointing to an erosion of Biden’s support among Black and Hispanic voters. A recent New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer poll of five key swing states found that more than one in five Black voters would vote for Trump in a head-to-head matchup with Biden.
“I don’t think 20 percent in 2024 is the end,” Donalds added. “I think 20 percent by 2024 is the start!” The comment drew a small amount of applause from the crowd, with some blowing light clouds of smoke and one woman even shouting “Amen!” called out.
While Pennsylvania is key to both parties’ fates in 2024, Philadelphia is largely considered Biden’s turf.
The president held a campaign rally last week at the predominantly Black Girard College with Vice President Kamala Harris, highlighting the ways their administration had improved the lives of Black Americans, including by creating programs to forgive student debt and boost business ownership to encourage. Biden also used that as an opportunity to blast Trump’s record on race, reminding them that “Trump is the same man who unleashed the lie of birtherism against Barack.”
Republican lawmakers scoffed at descriptions of Trump as a racist and claimed Biden and Harris have pursued policies that have harmed Black Americans more than Trump. Hunt cited Harris’ record as California’s attorney general, when she convicted hundreds of people for marijuana possession and attacked Biden for his role in crafting the 1994 crime bill that disproportionately impacted Black and brown Americans .
“Let’s talk about racism here,” Hunt said.
The cognac and cigar event started just hours after the Republican National Committee celebrated the opening of a campaign office in north Philadelphia. Hunt was announced as a special guest, but Trump did not attend. One attendee asked lawmakers if they could persuade Trump to come to town.
The two rallies in Philadelphia also reveal the limits of Trump’s outreach strategy. There were few people attending the event who did not already consider themselves Black Republicans, and there seemed to be little plan to identify those on the fence or to bring more people into the group.
One attendee, dressed in Trump paraphernalia, declined to speak to POLITICO, saying she only did paid interviews. One woman stood up and said she turned to conservatism after “the Democratic Party fired me” for not taking the Covid vaccine.
When another was asked why she attended, she said she was there for the cigars and cognac, but didn’t look closely enough at the flyer to realize it was a Republican-led event. She left halfway through the program.
Donalds and Hunt plan to continue events like the one in Philadelphia and take the roadshow to other major cities in key swing states with large Black populations, including a possible one in Atlanta later this month to coincide with CNN’s debate on 27 June between Trump and Biden. .
