Black Caucus Chief Speaks Out: McAuliffe 'Didn't Show Up'
Isaac Shorr, National Review
October 20, 2021
In 2017, the Hampton Roads Black Caucus endorsed Democrat Ralph Northam for governor. Four years before that, the group threw its support behind another Democrat, Terry McAuliffe.
This year, for the first time in its history, the HRBC made headlines when it announced that by a simple majority vote of its membership, Republican Glenn Youngkin had secured its endorsement over McAuliffe, who is seeking a rare second term as governor four years after leaving office.
While heralded by the Youngkin campaign, the endorsement also resulted in derision and accusations from state Democrats that the HRBC was a Republican front group. One member of the Greater Hampton Roads Black Democrats said that "to use the name Hampton Roads Black Caucus… I'm not going to use fake news. I'm not going to use misinformation. I'm going to use lies."
HRBC president Ron Taylor spoke to National Review about the endorsement process, addressing some of the criticisms made of his organization and speculating as to why his members were supporting more Republican candidates than usual this election cycle.
Taylor rejected the idea that the group's name was misleading, calling the HRBC is a "grassroots caucus that's defined as a group of people coming together to influence the political process for a reason." Moreover, he says that the HRBC is proud to be a home to members of all persuasions — Democrats, Republicans, and independents — and argued that it's "the work we do in the community to uplift the black community, that's what we look for — the candidate that identifies with our group."
Taylor says that both gubernatorial candidates were presented with surveys and invited to events meant to help members gauge how conducive their platforms would be at promoting the group's four pillars: Black-owned business growth, educational achievement, economic development, and community development.
According to Taylor, Youngkin availed himself of every chance to appeal to the group; McAuliffe ignored every such chance. "Some people may have taken our endorsement for granted, and didn't show up, or didn't fill out the survey. And some people said 'well since you don't want to take our organization serious, I'm not gonna vote for you," said Taylor.
"I know Mr. Youngkin, every opportunity that we afforded him, he took advantage of it… he was trying to leave no stone unturned" he added. By contrast, McAuliffe declined to respond to the group's questions and did not even deign to send a surrogate to their events. His campaign has not responded to a request for comment on its lack of engagement with the HRBC.
The Youngkin campaign has a blanket policy of not filling out surveys, but the candidate did send a letter to the group outlining his policies and beliefs, according to a spokesman with the campaign.
Taylor also suspects that the McAuliffe campaign's attempts to cast Youngkin as a Donald Trump clone have fallen on deaf ears in the African-American community.
"Every person, we have to let them stand on their own merit… why should I judge you based on who you socialize with?" asked Taylor, who believes that Youngkin has established himself as his own man and candidate. In fact, it may be that McAuliffe's symbol and association-driven campaign has hurt him with black voters, especially given the contrast between it and the issue-oriented campaign being run by Youngkin.
"If your house is on fire, sir, you call 911, right? And two fire engines show up and both of them out there arguing about what fire extinguishing agent they're gonna use to put out the fire, and nothing is being done but your house is burning up. you gonna say 'what is going on here? Why are y'all not getting this thing done? My house is burning, my livelihood,'" explained Taylor.
"In the African-American community, that's what some of them are feeling, that our community is burning down and no one is doing anything," he continued.
Critics have increasingly cast the McAuliffe campaign as complacent and reticent to engage on the most important issues to Virginian voters as the campaign struggles to capitalize on the substantial early lead it enjoyed over Youngkin, and its principal's high name ID.
In an interview that aired on local television on Tuesday, McAuliffe walked out early while chiding his interlocutor for not asking "better questions." The questions he had been asked to that point were on education and crime, two of the most important issues to black voters per Taylor, and to voters more generally according to polling. …
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