Satellite trucks have descended on Cleveland, as Republican presidential contenders tonight will try to stand-out of a crowded field of 17 candidates. Ten of those will be featured in the main event at 9 this evening at the Q.
Cleveland, and Cuyahoga County certainly, are not known as the most friendly campaigning spots for the GOP, but that hasn't stopped the party from trying to make a mark in Northeast Ohio. Ideastream’s Tony Ganzer spoke about this earlier with NPR national political correspondent Don Gonyea:
GONYEA: “The Republicans having just been demoralized after the last presidential election really examined this process very closely. They had that big Growth and Opportunity report that they came out with, and the Republican leader in one case, Reince Priebus, actually referred to it as an autopsy. He’s since stopped using that term. Part of that was getting control over the debate process—there were a couple of dozen debates last time, this time just nine. And part of that was where they were going to hold their convention, and Mitt Romney four years ago was really hoping he would carry Ohio on his way to the Presidency. Obviously it didn’t happen. And the Party thinks it’s important to start a dialogue in this place, to do it early, to keep coming back here, and coming to Cleveland is part of that. Again, Cleveland, a Democratic stronghold, they don’t need to win it, they would just like to do better than they normally do here, and that could be enough to tip the balance in a close election.”
GANZER: “Sure. The vote in Cuyahoga County, in particular the African-American vote, did well for President Obama. Do you think that this plays into, maybe, the strategy to reach out to more minority groups that we’ve heard from the GOP in the past?”
GONYEA: “I think that’s certainly part of it. They see an opportunity in two ways, when it comes to the African-American vote: the first, Republicans don’t anticipate there will be the kind of turn-out and the level of support that Barack Obama got, because of his unique position as the first African-American president. But you do see some Republican candidates again setting up offices; making visits into urban areas: coming to Cleveland, going to Detroit, going to Philadelphia, Rand Paul has been doing that. We’ve certainly heard Governor Kasich talking more about how to approach urban areas and minority populations. There is also a larger narrative on the part of the party as a whole, that often cuts against any kind of push like that, and again that’s the age-old issue with the Republican Party and minorities and why Democrats have done so much better with Latinos, Hispanics, and African-Americans. That is what the Republican Party has in mind: narrowing those margins, doing better because that’s a start and it could, could, make a difference.”
GANZER: “An issue of particular importance especially here, but also nationally, has been the high-profile police shootings we’ve seen, and also just interactions with groups of color and the police. Do you think this is going to factor-in at all to the debate tonight, certainly, but more broadly with in the Republican primary?”
GONYEA: “It would certainly be a great question to come up in the debate, not just because what has happened here in Cleveland, but here we are a year, thereabouts, since Ferguson, and there have been other incidents since then around the country and the list is long now. Whether or not it comes up, we will see. The interesting thing to watch, going forward, and even into the general election, is that the Republican base, which is so important in these primaries, talks about these issues in very, very different ways than how Democratic voters and the Democratic base talks about them. You know, you see the push-back against the Black Lives Matter on the part of conservatives and the Right. So that certainly complicates the Republican ability to win those votes as we get beyond the primaries. And the temptation is always there, always there, to play to the base, especially in a big crowded field, because 20 percent might put you in second place, it might even win a primary here and there.”
