RNC adds staffers in outreach to African-Americans

The Republican National Committee (RNC) on Wednesday announced four hires to bolster its efforts to attract black voters.

{mosads}The new members of its African American Engagement Initiative “will help fulfill the RNC’s goal of growing the Party and communicating the Republican message to every American,” the RNC said in a press release.

The former commissioner of Hall County in Georgia, Ashley Bell, will be a senior strategist and national director of African-American political engagement.

Shannon Reeves, assistant political science professor from Alabama A&M University, will become a senior adviser to the RNC Political Department.

J.C. Watts Companies CEO Elroy Sailor will be a new senior adviser to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

And Leah Le’Vell, a Georgia State University senior and a former congressional intern, will become a new fellow in the committee’s African American Initiatives and Urban Media unit.

“With these new additions to our Strategic Initiatives team, we are growing our long-term commitment to engaging with Black voters and being the Party that promotes new models to solve old problems,” Priebus said in the statement.

The additions come as the party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, struggles to attract black voters.

Trump has nearly no support among African-Americans in Ohio and Pennsylvania and has only 6 percent support among black voters nationally.