More Black Democrats May Be Ready to Switch Parties

After two black Democrat state legislators switched parties in the span of a month, more frustrated black Democrats may be willing to join them.

Success begets success, and after Louisiana state Sen. Elbert Guillory and Central East Baton Rouge Mayor Pro-Tem Ralph Washington became Republicans, The Hayride, a political publication in Louisiana, reported there may be more black Democrats who could go “public at any time” with their party switches. 

As the Shreveport Times noted, Louisiana state Sen. Elbert Guillory became the first black Republican legislator since Reconstruction in the state when he switched political parties, posting an Internet video that was picked up by talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and has since gone viral. 

He told the Times before formally announcing the switch at the @Large conference on May 31 that the Democratic Party was “the party of disappointment” and had “left Louisiana behind.” He is harsher in the video, referring to Democrats as “the party of Jim Crow” and accusing the party of using government and its programs–like food stamps–to “control the black community.”

“Our self-initiative and our self-reliance have been sacrificed in exchange for allegiance to our overseers who control us by making us dependent on them,” he said. 

As noted in The Hayride, Ralph Washington, the mayor pro-tem of the city of Central East Baton Rouge Parish, switched parties a week after Guillory made his announcement at the @Large conference. 

”The value system I was raised up with, it really doesn’t side with the Democrats,” Washington reportedly said. “Some of the things I see happening today, with the entitlement programs, we have to change. We can’t continue doing the things we are doing and survive.”

The Hayride also reported a former Baton Rouge Metro Councilman has also switched parties, and there may be at least two other elected officials in Louisiana who are considering doing the same and “could go public at any time”–and “there are other party-switchers coming.”

As Breitbart News’ Lee Stranahan reported, the presence of Andrew Breitbart, who championed black and minority conservatives and stood up for them whenever he could, was felt throughout the @Large conference. 

Stranahan reported that another “theme that was repeated time and again is that the Democratic agenda has created an attitude of anger and defeatism among many black Americans.” Stranahan emphasized many at the conference also championed pro-life causes. In addition, a conference attendee “who had been inside the Black Caucus at the Democratic National Convention” told Stranahan that “there was a marked contrast in the atmospheres between this event and the Democrat gathering. At the DNC event, there was palpable, even open hostility towards white people; they were pressured to leave. At the @Large event, the attendees were Americans of all skin colors and the conversation and ideas flowed freely.”

As Star Parker, a conservative speaker at the conference noted, the @Large conference was hosted by Pastor C.L. Bryant, who had been the president of the NAACP chapter in Garland, Texas before “his relationship with the NAACP soured when he refused to speak at a Planned Parenthood pro-abortion event.”

“Black Americans, like every other American, need fewer taxes taken out of their paycheck, need to be able to choose where to send their child to school, need to be able to freely pick a health care plan that suits their needs, and need to save for retirement instead of paying payroll taxes,” Parker writes. “You can’t sum it up any better than what Guillory and Ralph Washington have said. There are many, many Guillorys and Washingtons out there in black America.”