PHILADELPHIA — Two Republican congressmen swung by battleground Pennsylvania to make their case to African-American voters less than a week after President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris launched “Black Voters for Biden-Harris” in the same city — with the GOP message containing an optimism completely lacking in an administration steadily losing support among the vital demographic.
“This is not 1964. This is 2024,” Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt told the crowd Tuesday evening at The Cigar Code, a cigar bar in Philly’s hip Northern Liberties neighborhood. “Do you know when’s the best time to be black in America? Right now, tomorrow!”
That’s in sharp contrast to Democratic messaging: In his angry Morehouse College commencement speech last month, Biden wondered, “What does it mean . . . to be a black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure?”
Hunt, who’s leading the national push to bring African-American voters into the GOP, and Florida Rep. Byron Donalds were a hit when mingling with the mostly black audience.
The congressmen then sat down for a panel discussion moderated by former “Sunday Night Football” reporter-turned-activist Michele Tafoya.
The “fireside chat,” as it was billed, explored community/family structures, criminal-justice reform and the economy, among other issues.
“For us, to talk to what the opportunities [are] that come from the Republican agenda, we have no problem talking about that,” Donalds told the crowd, saying many GOP candidates make a mistake in not campaigning heavily in majority-black areas. “Before we got a platform [from being in Congress], we had those conversations in private; now it’s just coming out in public.”
In the City of Brotherly Love last Wednesday, Biden insisted his opponent is racist because former President Donald Trump “won’t say Black Lives Matter,” calling him “the same guy who wanted to tear gas you as you peacefully protested George Floyd’s murder.”
Hunt and Donalds hit back, criticizing Biden for his role in drafting the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act — more commonly called the 1994 Crime Bill — and worsening the mass incarceration of black Americans.
“This is the man that passed legislation to lock up black people for the exact same crime as white people in 1994 and differentiated because of cocaine versus crack,” Hunt said. “Let’s talk about racism here.”
The congressmen also spoke about the importance of strong family structures within the black community, noting the percentage of single-parent black families has skyrocketed since the civil-rights era.
The child of a two-parent family, Hunt credited his mom and dad with instilling strong values while Donalds — whose parents did not remain together — said his upbringing made him sure he would be there for his own son.
Such a “reinvigoration” of black families to replace reliance on government could swing more black voters toward conservatism, Donalds said.
One man at the event, Akbar Muslim, said he was especially excited to hear Donalds speak, given the Florida congressman’s staunch support for the previous president. (He’s been tipped as a possible running mate.)
“We think Trump is the man to get us back on track to a constitutional republic,” said Muslim, who wore a “Keep America Great” hat as he puffed on a cigar from a brown leather couch.
From across the aisle, Philadelphia resident Johanna Daye — a self-described likely Biden voter — said she’s most concerned about women’s health issues in this election.
Still, Daye came out Tuesday as she was “interested to see” what Hunt and Donalds had to say.
Trump received just under 19% of the vote among black men in 2020, but some polls now measure his support well into the 20s as issues like inflation and urban public safety brought on by illegal immigration continue to dog Biden.
Hunt said black conservatives like himself can capitalize on this shift by sharing their message within the community, which he believes will translate to big gains for Trump in November.
Hunt staffers are planning similar events targeting black voters in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Detroit and possibly Charlotte — all swing-state cities with large black populations — ahead of this fall’s election.
“The nadir would be 25%” of black men voting for Trump, Hunt told The Post, pointing to rising polling numbers. “The zenith would be 33%, a third.”