Black Republicans & Obama: Torn Between Party and Race

Aug. 15, 2008 — -- For as long as she can remember, Betty Culbreath has been a Republican.

The 67-year-old chairwoman of the Dallas Housing Authority is a family friend of the Bushes, having supported both the father and the son's presidential campaigns and embraced the party's fiscal conservatism.

But this time around, Culbreath, who is African-American, is supporting Barack Obama, insisting that it's not out of racial pride but because she's attracted to his character and vision for the country.

"I wouldn't support just any black candidate. What I like about Obama is that he's fresh, he's got good ideas," she tells ABCNews.com, noting that she admires some of Obama's conservative viewpoints such as his emphasis on personal responsibility.

Though she supported Mike Huckabee during the Republican primaries, she says she cannot support the party's presumptive nominee, John McCain, because she claims he has a "volatile" temperament and she disagrees with his positions on Medicare and Social Security.

Culbreath is just one of thousands of black Republicans and conservatives who are feeling conflicted in this election featuring the first major-party black nominee for president, torn between their allegiances to political party and their race. A minority within a minority – only 4 percent of African-Americans are Republicans – this small group has been heatedly debating their divided loyalties in dinner conversations and online message boards.

In a recent ABC News polls, 94 percent of black voters supported Obama and 2 percent supported McCain. Even those who identify themselves as black conservatives overwhelmingly favored Obama, 87 to 11 percent.

McCain has made efforts to lure black voters by attending the NAACP's annual convention last month and traveling to Selma, Ala., the iconic site of 1960s civil rights marches, where he "talked about the need to include 'forgotten Americans.'"

While prominent black Republicans such as Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and American Civil Rights Institute chairman Ward Connerly are backing McCain, plenty of other black conservatives, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Republican Rep. J.C. Watts and talk-show host Armstrong Williams are still on the fence.