National Review: Meet “Jesse Jackson’s Worst Nightmare” - Ken Blackwell

National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez writes on blacks and the Republican Party, focusing on Republican candidate for Governor of Ohio, Ken Blackwell:

Black Republicans are making a run for a number of big elections this year. In Maryland, Michael Steele wants retiring Democrat Paul Sarbanes's U.S. Senate seat. Keith Butler, a Detroit-area pastor, is also running for Senate, from Michigan. Lynn Swann, the former Pittsburgh Steelers star, wants to be governor of the Keystone State. Randy Daniels would like to be governor of New York. And gunning for governor in a key presidential electoral state there is the great black hope for the Republican party, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.

The "great black hope" is probably the last phrase Blackwell would use to describe himself (I, myself, cringed while writing it). It actually both unnecessarily cheapens and ghettoizes; in truth, Ken Blackwell is a great hope for us all.

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And Blackwell could win — having taken an early pre-Republican primary lead and garnering the national attention needed to keep a campaign running.

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Republican outreach efforts are credited with increasing President Bush's share of the black vote from eight percent in 2000 to about 12 in 2004. There are miles to go yet (obviously), but it's progress. And it's something that Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman is devoted to — increasing black Americans' identification with the Republican party — speaking about it passionately both privately and publicly.

Addressing a NAACP audience last fall, Mehlman said, "If you give us a chance, we'll give you a choice." That's good stuff we all go for, but Mehlman doesn't have the power that Ken Blackwell does to pull it off. In one electoral triumph, Blackwell could achieve what no task force, outreach program, or powerful speech ever will — making it "safe" for blacks to routinely vote Republican instead of being looked at as anomalies.

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Other Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Principle Trumps Race

Ronald Reagan's Unlikely Heir