Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is trying his luck today in attempts to win over the black vote. At an annual meeting of leading civil rights groups, Romney will give a speech in hopes of demonstrating his willingness to reach out to diverse crowds.
Romney's speech will be centered on the economy, one of the biggest issues both he and President Obama are targeting during this year's race. With the unemployment rate among African Americans higher than the overall unemployment rate in the country, Romney is expected to argue that he is capable of creating more jobs. Referring to education as the "civil rights issue of our era," Romney will more than likely incorporate education into his speech as well.
Romney's pitch to African Americans is a difficult one to win over, as 95 percent of blacks supported President Barack Obama in 2008. Despite what his speech consists of on Wednesday, both Republicans and Democrats can agree that the very fact that he is speaking in the presence of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a big step in and of itself.
"The first thing you need to do is show up, so I ultimately think he's doing the right thing," Tim Scott, one of two African American Republicans in Congress, said. "What he's saying to everyone is that he's (running to become) America's president and not just those folks he thinks he can get votes from right now. I think that's a very important statement."
Although President Obama spoke to the NAACP during his 2008 campaign, he does not plan on doing so this year, but will instead have Vice President Joe Biden do so on Thursday.
This will be one of Romney's very rare occasions where he speaks politics to a predominantly black crowd. Another instance of this occurred months ago when Romney visited a school in Philadelphia, where he spoke on the importance of bettering the education system as a means to bettering African American and minority communities.
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