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.

Powell, who has been courted by both Obama and McCain in recent months, has said that he will not necessarily vote for the Republican but rather for "the individual I think that brings the best set of tools to the problems of 21st-century America and the 21st-century world regardless of party."

Watts, who did not return calls, has told reporters that he is a "free agent," adding that black Republicans were the "most forgotten demographic" in the party.

Recently, a small group of black Republicans including Steele, Watts and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, met with McCain to talk about the need to reach out to black voters.

"It's important, especially with an African American running on the Democratic side, that the party reawaken its relationship [with black voters], no matter how tattered and torn it has been over the years," Steele told McCain.

"When you make the fatal flawed assumption, 'They won't vote for us; why bother?' you get what that assumption gives you."

Williams, a political commentator who was paid by the Bush administration to advocate their education policy, says that he gets emails from black conservatives who are supporting Obama.

"They are caught up in the euphoria, the possibility that you could have someone in the White House that we haven't seen before," he says.

Williams, who has never voted for a Democrat for president, says that he was also caught up in that excitement and was on the verge of supporting Obama about a month ago. "I would make history for myself in more ways than you can imagine," he adds.

"But about a month ago, some things began to resonate and bother me about him and I lost some of the enthusiasm," says Williams. "Something has happened to Obama since he clinched the nomination – running around Europe, acting triumphant – and it made me think about what he has really accomplished. He talks around the point, but never gives a specific answer. McCain is more clear about where he is."

Connerly, who supported Rudy Giuliani in the primaries and calls himself a "mild" McCain supporter, says that he thinks Obama will win over many black Republicans.

"There is great consternation among the ones I interact with, a lot of them are confronted with racial solidarity and being on the right side of history, as one characterized it, as opposed to voting for his true beliefs," he explains. "I think [Obama] will get a lot of the black Republican vote solely on the basis of race, not only leaning his way but in his camp … Some are saying, 'I don't want him to have been elected president and for me to tell my grandkids that I was on the wrong side of history.' Others will say, 'If he's elected, it will certainly put Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton out of business.'"

Connerly has supported Democratic candidates in the past, noting that he is a major fundraiser for former Phoenix Suns star Kevin Johnson who is running for mayor of Sacramento.

Political scientist Stephen Maynard Caliendo, who studies race in political campaigning, also expects large numbers of black Republicans vote for Obama, citing the significance of political symbolism to minority voters.

"Black Republicans live as Republicans and black folks and they understand that in a country that has so disadvantaged people of color, the opportunity to have a person of color in the top position in the nation is important," he explains.

"That's going to have to weigh against their policy positions. Everyone says they vote for policy positions, but let's not fool ourselves – people vote based on other factors in addition to just policy."

Caliendo points out that it will remain a quandary for many black Republicans given that McCain is a moderate Republican. "They may have a harder choice since McCain is not an extreme conservative – it's not like Obama is running against Strom Thurmond or Jesse Helms."