Black MAGA ends 2024 among the year’s biggest losers

For all the electoral and legislative victories won by far-right Republicans this year — most notably the election of Donald Trump in November — no subcategory of the “Make America Great Again” camp has been able to take the lead: “Black MAGA.”

Ultra-conservative black elected officials, such as Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, frequently joined Trump on the campaign trail, enhancing the then-candidate’s access to black voters. As they sit on the shortlist for selecting the Vice President. While Trump succeeded in obtaining a large share Of black male voters when he achieved his electoral victory in November, their efforts to curry favor with the would-be president-elect fell short of coveted cabinet positions despite the president-elect’s promises to reward his most loyal supporters with high bonuses. – Ordinal roles in its management.

After weeks of rolling out Cabinet picks, Trump has nominated just one Black person: Scott Turner, a relatively unknown former Texas state lawmaker, former football player and motivational speaker. Turner, who served under then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson in the first Trump administration, will return to lead HUD, which has had the highest number of Black secretary appointments of any federal department.

Mix all that with the escalating scandal — and subsequent disdain — of the North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Trump once supported, Mark Robinson, and Black MAGA’s 2024 political performance has left much to be desired.

Veteran Republican political strategist Leo Smith told Salon in a phone interview that Trump’s use of black interests as a way to gain and maintain political power has “reached its peak” this election cycle.

“And here we are [with] “Trump has commoditized both candidates and campaign operations in a way that has benefited him and his reclaiming of the White House,” said Smith, CEO of Atlanta-based political consulting firm Engaged Futures.

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott

Scott’s year began in the wake of his failed presidential bid, after the South Carolina senator withdrew from the Republican presidential primary in the final months of 2023. Shortly thereafter, he endorsed Trump and became a vocal supporter of the 78-year-old’s campaign.

“I just love you,” Scott Trump said During the candidate’s remarks in January after he won the New Hampshire primary. Trump quipped that Scott must “really hate” then-GOP presidential nominee Nikki Haley, who appointed Scott to the Senate while serving as governor of South Carolina, to refuse to endorse her.

Scott had long been considered a top contender for Trump’s vice presidential pick, and his strong support for Trump made clear his interest. Even South Carolinian went for it He releases A $14 million outreach effort to mobilize voters of color in seven battleground states as the Trump campaign ramped up its appeals to black and Latino voters over the summer.

This bid also failed. Trump picked Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate — well, the rest is history.

Scott, along with other GOP candidates, learned to appeal to Trump’s interest in the “cult of personality, the performative person who elevates Trump” and exploited that, Smith said.

“They have learned to do this performance well, and they have learned to conduct a dialogue – sometimes thoughtful – in dealing with journalists and in public appearances,” he said. “But sometimes their dialogue is about completely highlighting the performance and elevating the performance so they can go viral.”

And silence on his part He pointed out Not interested in taking a Cabinet position if offered, he told attendees at a Punchbowl News event that he would prefer to chair the Senate Banking Committee if the Senate holds a majority during the election.

And the only black Republican in the Senate didn’t end the year empty-handed. His Senate colleagues elected him in late November to lead the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which Smith notes is a “very strong position” in itself.

Smith said Scott was supported not by an “extraordinary” political talent but by an “opportunistic” one, and “he made good use of the opportunity” in passing the policy.

In a news conference following his NRSC victory, Scott said he aims to help Trump by working to maintain the GOP majority in the Senate throughout the four years of the president-elect’s term.

“My passion is to make sure that we defend our current seats and expand the map and expand our majority so that President Trump doesn’t have two years with a Republican majority in the Senate — that he has four years in control of making sure that America’s agenda goes back to every family,” Scott said. He said.

The South Carolinian, currently the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, is also expected to become chairman of the committee in the next Congress following the electoral defeat of the incumbent, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Florida State Representative Byron Donalds

Like Scott, Donalds, a staunch ally of the president-elect, made frequent appearances on the campaign trail with Trump, eventually becoming a fixture at rallies and a stand-in at events for the now president-elect as he courted Black. Voters in swing states.

During a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in September, Trump said He praised Donalds as one of the “smart ones”, a supposed compliment to many He reads As a racist slur because Trump did not clarify to whom he was referring to “people.”

“This is a smart guy,” Trump told a crowd in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after drawing their attention to the Republican candidate from Florida. “You have smart people, and then you have people who are not quite so good.”

In his own efforts, Donalds sometimes took unorthodox approaches in motivating black voters to act. At a “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars” event in June, Donalds said during a discussion with a right-wing reporter that blacks enjoyed a better life under Jim Crow segregation, in part because “the black family was together” and blacks “voted more “Reserved.” The lawmaker later retracted those comments.

Likewise, Donalds, who was also on Trump’s shortlist (and passed over), was left out of the string of eager allies the president-elect has nominated for leadership roles in his administration — a strange fate for pundits who expected Florida to at least be considered for president. A big role for every prostration he made to Trump in 2024.

in November interview With CNN’s Laura Coats, Donalds said Trump had not personally asked him to hold any Cabinet position and that he was not “surprised” he was not nominated for the role. He also defended Trump from criticism that he had not subsequently selected any Black appointees.

“If the Cabinet chooses to help implement the America First agenda that Donald Trump wants, that would be a complete success, and every American would be happy about that,” Donalds said, in part, when Coats asked if he would be satisfied if Trump chose to help. He did not choose a single black appointee.

(After announcing the nomination of Turner, a former Texas state lawmaker, for HUD Secretary, Donalds urge His Senate colleagues support his confirmation.)

Smith said Donalds likely wouldn’t see his exclusion from the Trump administration’s picks as a snub. Instead, he said Donalds will likely wait to use his relationship with Trump in a potential run for governor of Florida in 2026.

“Byron Donalds is the main candidate to become governor of Florida, and this is what I believe is waiting for him to take advantage of his cards and that he has contributed his influence and ability to perform well in press interviews.” Smith said.

North Carolina Governor Mike Robinson

Despite regularly being embroiled in scandal over his inflammatory statements, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor has seemingly started 2024 on top of his game. He had strong support among the MAGA base and strong support from top Republicans. Trump, who has praised him before, promised an endorsement early in the primary cycle, and Republican voters in the state awarded him an award. Sweeping victory In the race for the Republican nomination for governor of the state.

And then CNN dropped A Bomb report Another Robinson scandal revealed.

In mid-September, the outlet linked Robinson to an old profile on an online porn forum that had posted a series of problematic posts. The user, named “Mark Robinson” and with a similar name and email to the administrator’s other social media accounts, called himself a “black Nazi,” expressed support for the reintroduction of slavery, praised Adolf Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” and described spying on women who They bathe in the bathrooms. The locker room twice as a teenager, among other sexually explicit behavior.

Robinson has strongly denied that he wrote the posts, telling CNN: “This is not us. These are not our words. This is not my thing.”

Robinson, who frequently quoted Hitler during his campaign, added: “I’m not going to get into the finer details of how someone could have concocted these blatant lies in the tabloids.”

---

Want a daily summary of all the news and reviews the salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

---

However, the damage to his campaign was swift and insurmountable.

Republican Party support for Robinson began to wane shortly thereafter, with Republican officials in North Carolina losing ground Distancing themselves From him, Republican Party activists pressured him to withdraw and a large portion of his staff resigned from his campaign. Robinson also appears to be losing support from Trump, who has also failed to condemn Robinson’s alleged behavior decreased To say whether he will urge voters to support the candidate.

But Smith argued that Robinson never had the full support of the state and national Republican Party, largely because he had an inflammatory personality. Instead, he said he believed North Carolina and the Republican National Committee were committed to the “fundraising, attention-grabbing, pure joyful entertainment” that Robinson provided.

“He found a home in not being judged [his character flaws] “By being a great performer for an audience that loves black performances before it loves black morals,” Smith said, adding: “In other words, the brother is just a great minstrel in order to exchange dollars for money.” the offer.”

The lieutenant governor’s political career declined further during the election. Robinson easily lost the North Carolina governor’s race, trailing Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein by almost a wide margin. 15 pointsHe was also excluded from Trump’s list of nominees.

Smith said this year’s election cycle has shown that Black Americans are largely aware that they face a double-edged sword when they work to obtain political gains and political gains as well as resources from the political system.

“I think black Americans are well aware that these gains come through deals with the devil,” he said. “Racism in politics and being used in politics as pawns is part of this process.”

Smith argued that the new criticism of colored politicians like Donalds, Scott, and Robinson should be, “Do these people perform like minstrels?” Or “Are these people actually political negotiators who are putting themselves at the power table by any means necessary in order to achieve some outcome, some decisive outcome, for black America?”