The GOP Has A Black Problem As Every Black Republican House Member Leaves Congress
While Democrats struggle with the older Black generation resisting calls to leave Congress, younger Black House Republicans are leaving Capitol Hill.
Black News 
All four Black Republicans in the House of Representatives are leaving Congress. Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, Rep. John James of Michigan, and Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah. There are only five total, when including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
According to The New York Times, the four men were elected after then-House leader Kevin McCarthy set out to recruit more Black Republicans to run for Congress. He wanted the Republican Party to look more like the Democratic Party in terms of diversity.
“When you look at the Democrats, they actually look like America,” said McCarthy after leaving Congress in 2023. “When I look at my party, we look like the most restrictive country club in America.”
McCarthy’s progress could soon be erased.
While Democrats struggle with the older Black generation staying in power and resisting calls to leave Congress, younger Black House Republicans are leaving Capitol Hill. Rep. John James of Michigan notably flipped a district to red in 2022. He is now running for governor of Michigan. Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who won his first election to the House in 2020, is also running for governor of Florida.
Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, a West Point graduate who McCarthy recruited in 2022, was defeated in the state’s Republican primary last month. Meanwhile, Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah, a former NFL player, chose not to seek re-election after a court-ordered redrawing of his district in the state, where it’s Democratic-leaning.
Many saw them as the antidote to those who criticize President Donald Trump and call him a racist.
“I ran in a primary against nine other white guys and beat my nearest competitor by more than 25 points,” Hunt said during an interview with Fox News. “The left can claim the Republican Party is racist, but my story says otherwise.”
However, with all but one Black GOP leader leaving Congress, it’s hard for Republicans to refute those racist claims.
How Black Voters Are Feeling
Their exit comes on the backdrop of what many see as a hostile takeover of policies and initiatives that have leveled the playing field for people of color and women. Within his first days in office, President Trump signed an executive order that has effectively banned DEI efforts in public schools, higher education institutions, and within corporations.
During an interview with The New York Times, Nebeyatt Betre, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Republicans have pushed policies that have hurt Black Americans, including slashing healthcare programs, backing tariffs that have increased the prices at the grocery store, supporting the war in Iran, and gerrymandering in states that have limited Black representation in Congress.
Exit polling data from the 2024 election revealed that over 90% of Black women voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Over 70% of Black men voted for her.
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