GOP Wins More Backing From Black Clergy/Pastor Turns Republican Supports Perry

GOP wins more backing from black clergy /Pastor turns Republican, supports Perry

DALLAS - For the second time in two years, an African-American minister from Houston took center stage Saturday at a Republican event.

The Rev. C.L. Jackson of Houston's Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church provided a show of support for Gov. Rick Perry by announcing at the Republican State Convention that he is switching parties.

To the cheers of some 8,500 party stalwarts, Jackson said that his two days at the convention convinced him that he now is a Republican after years of being a Democrat.

In 2000, the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church ignored criticism from some brethren in the black clergy and introduced his close friend and future president, George W. Bush, at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. Caldwell has said he is an independent.

Jackson's announcement came during the closing day of a state convention where racial politics has been a simmering issue.

Jackson, whose near-northside Houston church serves more than 5,000 families, said he has been a lifelong Democrat and only has endorsed that party's candidates. But he strongly supports Perry and plans to help the governor build inroads to the black community.

In Harris County, blacks routinely vote 95 percent Democratic, and turnout in the county is key to the Democrats' strategy for winning in November.

Jackson said he wants to prevent Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez from benefiting from the large turnout expected in black precincts because of the U.S. Senate run by former Dallas Mayor Kirk Watson, the first black to win a major party's Senate nomination in Texas.

"I'm crossing over because I believe in Rick Perry," Jackson said after offering an invocation at a morning prayer rally. "I just don't want to go backward a hundred years."

State GOP Chairman Susan Weddington said she contacted Jackson before the convention at Perry's suggestion, then invited Jackson to the convention as her guest and asked him to give an invocation.

"He's been here for two days, he participated in our prayer rally this morning," Weddington said. "It was a connection that felt right to him. And he, much to my surprise, declared that he experienced something while here at the convention."

Weddington used Jackson's conversion Saturday to rebut Democratic claims that the GOP isn't interested in racial diversity.

"Rev. Jackson declared himself a Republican for the first time right here at our convention and stated his reason why, because he was comfortable in the Republican family, because it had a respect for faith and because it honored him like he'd never been honored before by the Democrats," Weddington said.

Texas Democratic Party Chairwoman Molly Beth Malcolm earlier Saturday accused the GOP of abandoning a media event planned to showcase minority delegates because they feared it would lead to examination of the GOP's record on issues important to minorities across the state.

Malcolm said the Republicans canceled the news conference after Democrats released a report showing that most minority office holders in Texas are Democrats.

"It's a classic collision between spin and reality," Malcolm said. "The Republicans' worst nightmare is having their record exposed."

Weddington denied the allegation, saying the news conference was canceled because it conflicted with other convention events.

According to a tally by the Associated Press, GOP candidates for statewide office this season include three blacks, 13 whites and no Hispanics. Three of the candidates are women. The Democratic statewide ticket comprises one black, three Hispanics, and 12 whites. Two are women.

On another front in the diversity debate Saturday, retiring U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm lashed out at the Democratic ticket, saying it is emphasizing racial politics instead of the best interest of all Texans.

Democrats hope to attract a wide spectrum of voters with their ticket featuring Sanchez, Kirk, and lieutenant governor candidate John Sharp, an Anglo, in key races. Perry is white, as are Republican Senate candidate John Cornyn and lieutenant governor candidate David Dewhurst.

Alluding to the Democrats' so-called "dream ticket," Gramm told the mostly white convention crowd, "The Democrats believe that they can divide Texas based on race. That is their dream and that is their vision, and this election is about rejecting that dream and vision once and for all."

The GOP convention was held in Dallas this past weekend. The democratic convention will be this coming weekend in El Paso, Texas. The national democratic politicians were asked not to show up for fear they would be too liberal for the Texas democrats. The GOP is embracing more black and more blacks are embracing the GOP.

This is great news. The GOP has a lot to offer conservative minorities. In the past they have simply discarded them or ignored them. It didn't help that Democrats and black leadership did everything possible to alienate minority constituents.

The future of conservatives is dependent on these efforts to reach out and "evangelize".

Agreed. I'd focus more on Hispanics than blacks, but we ought to work on both.

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