Something I've predicted for a long time is finally starting to happen - Black people are realizing the Democrat Party takes them for granted.
The Republicans in Maryland are running African-American Michael Steele for Governor. Black leaders from around the state are complaining that there is a dearth of statewide Black candidates in the Democratic Party. We saw this issue in New Jersey in 2001 when the Democrats gerrymandered and made it harder for Black pols to get elected.
There is a feeling in Maryland that the African-American Community will backlash and vote Republican.
That would be a homecoming. Not only was the Republican Party founded by 3 anti-slavery groups that started the Civil Rights Movement, but consider these facts:
Republicans were instrumental in bringing about the Thirteenth Amendment (outlawing slavery), the Fourteenth (equal protection) and the Fifteenth (voting rights for African-Americans).
The first African-American Senator was Republican – Hiram R. Revels, as well as the first Representative - Joseph H. Rainey.
The first Civil Rights legislation since Reconstruction was proposed by Republican President Eisenhower in 1957 and 1960.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a Republican victory. The house votes for it were fairly even: Democrats 153 and Republicans 136. The votes against it are more telling: Republicans 35, Democrats 91. In the Senate 18 Democrats filibustered the bill, led by white supremacist Democrat Richard Russell. 82% of Republican Senators passed it, while only 69% of Democrats did.
As for access to Party leadership, African-Americans have received these Republican appointments: Assistant Secretary of Labor, Chairman of the US Commission on Civil Rights, Secretary of Transportation, Chairman of the US Civil Rights Commission, Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Director of Soviet and Eastern European Affairs, Chairman of the House of Representatives, Secretary of Education, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State, Advisor of the National Security Council and US Supreme Court Justice.
Democrats have no similar legacy of wanting Black people to lead.
If Maryland Blacks vote Republican, I say, "Welcome home."