GOP woos minorities with meals, movie nights at new community centers in cities, border towns

The RNC is establishing a series of community centers in swing states across the country, targeting Black, Hispanic, and Asian American voters. The centers are indicative of the growing push for the GOP to continue making inroads with minorities ahead of the midterms.

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The Republican National Committee is trying to forge inroads with Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans through a network of community centers across the country.

The party already opened 20 centers in several swing states and is set to open more this year in the runup to the midterm elections in November.

The latest center opened in Houston this week, catering to a Hispanic neighborhood and, like the other community centers, offers a range of events and services while giving insight into what the GOP stands for.

“At the end of the day, we know that Hispanics belong in the Republican Party,” said Macarena Martinez, the RNC’s Texas communications director. “We’re grounded within the same ideology of safety, freedom and economic opportunity.”

The community centers also host movie nights, holiday parties, prayer vigils, and toy and food drives where donations can be collected during the holiday season.

For Black History Month in February, the community center in the Atlanta suburb of College Park will hold a “coffee and conversations” session every Friday. Along with free breakfast and coffee, participants will be engaged in discussions about the Republican Party and conservative beliefs.

The RNC’s multimillion-dollar investment in community centers aims to build on recent gains the party has made with voting blocs that traditionally back Democrats.

Despite losing the election in 2020, former President Donald Trump saw increased support from Hispanic voters and Black voters. Newly minted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin also was able to grab support from Hispanics in 2021 with a message focused on education and economics.

A Democratic National Committee aide dismissed the community centers as more optics than an earnest attempt to connect with a more diverse set of voters.

“These community centers are window dressing and just flashy things that they’re doing to get a couple of headlines without putting in the resources, money, and investment to actually target these voters,” the aide said. “There’s a litany of issues where Republicans are on the opposite of these communities they’re trying to make inroads in.”

Still, the DNC isn’t ignoring Republican gains with minority voters, even if Democrats enjoy overwhelmingly levels of support from people of color. The DNC has announced it is spending $20 million on a target effort to shore up support among Black and Hispanic voters for this year’s midterm elections.

For the GOP, courting Black and Hispanic voters is a matter of survival, said Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University.

“Given the changing demographics in the country, [they must] target voters who are people of color and underrepresented minorities who may have not historically affiliated with the Republican Party,” he said. “The GOP has no choice but to make inroads with those voters to remain viable in elections.”

The centers are typically located in strip malls in Black, Hispanic and Asian American neighborhoods, usually alongside locally- and minority-owned businesses.

“We just look to where there is going to be the most impactful place. For the most part, it happens to be where the Black-owned businesses are, where the [Asian Pacific American] businesses are, and where the Hispanic-owned businesses are,” said Savannah Viar, the RNC‘s southeast regional communications director.

The RNC has community centers in Black neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio and College Park, Georgia.

Some of the Hispanic neighborhoods served by the community centers are located in Miami and Milwaukee, Wisconsin and in the Texas cities of Houston, Laredo, McAllen and San Antonio.

Centers in Asian American communities have opened in Dallas, Orange County, California, and Gwinnett County, Georgia. Dallas is also home to a center catering to Indian Americans. 

A center in a Native American community is scheduled to open in Robeson County, North Carolina.

The RNC is promoting the venues through local media coverage, social media and traditional get-out-the-vote efforts like door knocking. Ms. Viar said they hire staff from within the communities, which also helps them spread the word about the community centers.

Garrison Douglas, the RNC’s Georgia communications director, said the initiative is different from traditional campaign efforts of hiring a minority outreach director or trying to reach those voters from the top down.

Mr. Douglas, who worked in a community center in Mableton, Georgia, in 2020, said the goal for the centers is to also engage people with others from their community with whom they can connect rather than just with political staffers.

“This is something that really is a historic thing for any sort of political party to really be involved with,” Mr. Douglas said. “These are dedicated community centers specified to interact with the community and bring in folks and engage folks within that community.”

Former Georgia state Rep. Melvin Everson, who was the first Black Republican to be elected to the state legislature since Reconstruction, said the community centers show voters that the GOP is present in their neighborhoods.

“When you go out and you share a message about economic empowerment, safe communities, great quality schools — that resonates with people overall. We have to take that message,” said Mr. Everson, who serves as an RNC volunteer. “We won’t reach and convince everyone, but we will reach and convince quite a few of them. There have been many times we have not gone into these communities, and that’s what we’re attempting to do now.”