Donald Trump’s slight but significant gains with Black and Hispanic voters have Republicans grappling with how to maintain his winning coalition. Already, operatives and Trump allies are discussing the need for policy wins and building a ground game.
Where there’s less consensus? Whether diversity should be a priority for Trump’s second administration.
The Republican Party has long decried identity politics and diversity initiatives. But now, some say intentional representation wouldn’t hurt Republicans’ efforts to build a more diverse coalition.
Trump is already expected to appoint Sen. Marco Rubio as his secretary of state, which would make him the highest-ranking Hispanic cabinet official in history. He also tapped Vivek Ramaswamy (along with Elon Musk) to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency. Having Black representation in the administration wouldn’t hurt either, one Black Trump campaign surrogate told NOTUS.
Though this person — and every Republican NOTUS spoke to — was quick to caveat that merit is the primary criteria.
“It would be great to see more minorities front facing like in our campaign,” the campaign surrogate said. “It was very diverse, which is something that he’s been proud of. We have the first female chief of staff. That’s something no one else has done yet, right? Because Susie [Wiles] is the best, regardless of being a woman, she is the best option.”
A former Trump administration staffer said something similar.
“Success is the biggest thing,” this Black former Trump administration official said. “We don’t really prioritize the DEI like representation matters … that’s not in our party. But on top of your success, it does help when you elevate qualified individuals to roles in which they have more visibility in the White House.”
Early numbers show that Trump chipped away at Democrats’ hold on Black, Hispanic and women voters. He doubled his 2020 numbers with young Black men, getting the vote of about 3 in 10 Black men under 45, according to AP VoteCast. His share of the vote from women increased from 43% against Joe Biden to 46% against Kamala Harris. NBC News exit polls show Trump has had a 13-point gain in Hispanic voters since 2020.
To keep that base, Trump allies argue that his administration will need to deliver on its promises.
Appointing minorities to the Trump administration is simply smoke and mirrors, said Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, a Trump ally in Detroit who spoke on the Republican National Convention stage in July.
“That means absolutely nothing,” he said. “The only thing that matters is one thing: that he regulates the resources that are already in poor Black communities.”
Policy matters more, Sewell said, rather than how many people of color are installed in the administration.
This was a common refrain among Trump’s supporters.
“The First Step Act was a receipt,” said a Black Georgia delegate of the Republican National Committee. “The permanent funding for HBCUs was a receipt. Extending a pardon to Alice Johnson was a receipt. Opportunity zones were a receipt. There were very specific things that helped Black people. So if he delivers the receipts again, we’ll be fine.”
However, this delegate acknowledged that Black leaders don’t have the same opportunities as their counterparts.
“In the party, Black people who earn it are respected and Black people who don’t earn it are not,” the delegate said. “We have to earn it differently than white folks, but guess what? That’s everywhere. It’s always going to be that way. It has always been that way.”
Republicans who wave away the need for diversity initiatives, focused discussions around outreach tactics. Trump’s 2024 campaign put a significant amount of resources into a legal operation to purge states’ voter rolls, create tighter regulations for mail-in ballots and restrict methods of mobile voting — all in an effort, Republicans say, to ensure that noncitizens did not vote. In doing so, it enlisted the help of independent conservative organizations to run ground game operations. Investing heavily into those groups will be essential to keeping the party’s gains, these Republicans say.
“Organizations like ours, the infrastructure needs to be developed and built out from now,” said John Jose, founder of the American Tomorrow Project, a GOP outreach organization focusing on Asian, Black and Hispanic voters. “That’ll help maintain the relationships we’ve already built with community leaders and communicate the policy results they’ve trusted us to achieve.”
Orlando Owens, a Black GOP operative and founder of Project Move the Needle, agreed. His grassroots organization focused on minimizing Democrats’ margin of victory in the deep blue Milwaukee County. “There was no one on the ground here for Republicans the way we were,” Owens told NOTUS.
As Republicans strategize to maintain their gains with minorities, Democrats are reckoning with their slippage with voters of color, despite putting forward a historic candidate. A senior adviser to one member of the Congressional Black Caucus, who chalks Trump’s gains with Harris’ failure to woo the working class, said the party may need to revisit its approach to this voting bloc.
“What probably hurt us with this group is a disconnect in our tone when talking directly to working-class Americans,” the adviser said. “Trump just has a way of tapping into any frustration people have with the way the economy is going. [Democrats] have to break that wall.”
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Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.