The Republican Party on Thursday announced it has hosted more than 5,000 separate events at its minority community centers, 38 multipurpose voter outreach spaces spread around 19 states.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) community centers have been at the forefront of the party’s outreach to minority and disadvantaged communities around the country ahead of the 2022 midterms.
“The RNC’s purposeful engagement forges the way for stronger relationships with minority communities and a stronger Republican Party. Unlike Democrats, Republicans do not take minority communities for granted, and we will continue to work to earn each vote ahead of November,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told The Hill in an email.
Events held at the community centers include everything from business roundtable discussions to food and toy drives, and educational or training events.
The centers also host the Republican Civics Initiative, an education program for immigrants who are eligible for naturalization.
The community center strategy seeks to engage minority voters directly with the Republican Party in an attempt to cut into long-held Democratic electoral advantages among nonwhite voters.
The strategy also exploits a weakness in Democratic outreach to many minority communities, as criticism over that party’s intermittent voter contact, particularly with Hispanic voters, has received significant attention.
And the community centers are likely to serve as staging grounds for get-out-the-vote efforts in key districts.
A majority of the GOP’s community centers are set up to serve Black and Hispanic communities, but there are also five centers dedicated to Asian and Pacific American voters, one for Native American voters in North Carolina, a Jewish community center in Boca Raton, Fla., and a veterans community center in Virginia Beach, Va.