佐治亚州哥伦布。-韦恩·布莱克是人群中为数不多的非洲裔美国人之一，最近约有100人聚集在佐治亚州哥伦布附近的共和党总部，听取美国参议院候选人和足球传奇人物赫歇尔·沃克的演讲。
作为Muscogee县共和党执行委员会的成员，Black说他在Walker的候选资格中找到了某种承诺，这是一个共和党的声音，可以吸引非洲裔美国人和佐治亚州其他传统上投票给民主党的人。
“他们从美国梦的角度认同他，”布莱克说。“你可以从零开始，如果你努力工作，你就可以实现美国梦。”
但这种乐观情绪在向北约100英里处遭遇了逆风。当她离开亚特兰大的一个投票站时，Wyvonia Carter说，她在今年可能是竞争最激烈的参议员竞选中的选择并不特别复杂。
“你知道我是黑人吧?”这位84岁的老人说。“我是民主党人。就是这样。”
在这个南方腹地的州，奴隶制、种族隔离和种族不公正的痛苦历史一直存在，选民们第一次选择了两名黑人候选人代表主要政党参加参议院竞选。在周二轻松赢得各自的初选后，沃克将与民主党参议员拉斐尔·沃诺克(Raphael Warnock)展开全面较量选举可能有助于决定参议院控制权的竞选。
这场竞选将考验民主党在2020年的胜利是昙花一现，还是这个快速变化的州政治重组的开始。2020年11月，乔·拜登成为28年来第一位赢得该州的民主党总统候选人，仅仅两个月后，沃诺克和民主党人乔恩·奥索夫(Jon Ossoff)翻转了两个长期的共和党参议员席位，交出了他们的席位聚会参议院中的微弱多数。
黑人选民在帮助民主党获得这些胜利方面至关重要，今年可能再次起到决定性作用。
问题不在于沃克是否会打破黑人选民与民主党候选人之间的纽带。更重要的是，对华盛顿在从警务改革到投票权等问题上缺乏进展感到沮丧的黑人选民是否会坐视不管选举出去。在一场势均力敌的选举中，即使投票模式的微小变化也可能是决定性的。
共和党人希望沃克的候选人资格至少可以中和竞选中的种族问题。
佐治亚州黑人共和党委员会主席卡米拉·摩尔说:“在这场竞选中，佐治亚州的黑人将不必与种族问题作斗争。”。“我真的相信从文化上来说，我们在社会上是保守的。我认为赫歇尔只要做好赫歇尔，说出他的保守信息就行了。”
但在最近几周的采访中，许多黑人选民表示，由于沃克的种族，他们不会再看他一眼。他们说，他们是受政策考虑的驱动，沃克得到了前总统唐纳德·特朗普的支持，总体上符合共和党的正统观念，但他没有解决他们的需求。
亚特兰大58岁的黑人选民路易斯·哈登(Louis Harden)表示，他支持沃诺克，因为这位参议员支持扩大医疗补助计划。
“颜色没关系，”他说。“这只是问题，谁来完成这项工作。”
只有少数现代例子中，两名黑人在参议院竞选中被提名。
民主党人巴拉克·奥巴马在2004年伊利诺伊州的参议员竞选中面对共和党电台主持人和前外交官艾伦·凯斯。最近，南卡罗来纳州的蒂姆·斯科特(Tim Scott)是参议院唯一的黑人共和党人，他在2016年受到了北查尔斯顿牧师托马斯·迪克森(Thomas Dixon)的挑战，但没有成功。
但沃诺克-沃克的对决是独特的，因为它发生在一个竞争激烈的州，比民主党的大本营伊利诺伊州或共和党占主导地位的南卡罗来纳州要激烈得多。此外，佐治亚州的候选人已经众所周知，他们代表着在南方备受尊崇的两个机构:教会和足球。
沃克是佐治亚州最著名的体育明星之一，他于20世纪80年代在佐治亚大学时赢得了冠军和海斯曼杯。沃诺克是马丁·路德·金布道的亚特兰大教堂的高级牧师。
“这将是一场历史性的对决，”佐治亚历史学会的学者斯坦·迪顿说。
约翰·霍普金斯大学(Johns Hopkins University)的政治历史学家莉亚·赖特·里格尔(Leah Wright Rigueur)说，为了削弱沃诺克在黑人选民中的支持，沃克需要做更多的工作来吸引黑人社区，她写了一些关于黑人共和党人努力扩大该党主要由白人组成的基础的文章。
在非洲裔美国选民中表现良好的共和党候选人有能力打造一个独立于该党的政治身份，她说沃克迄今为止还没有做到这一点。赖特里格尔说，黑人选民还会考虑候选人如何对待他或她的社区，他们可能会比白人候选人更严厉地看待坚持共和党观点的非洲裔美国人。
“原因是因为这被视为背叛，”她说。“这被视为社区背叛。”
沃克在很大程度上坚持共和党关于种族的信息。他为特朗普辩护，反对特朗普是种族主义者的批评，他指责黑人的命也是命想要摧毁这个国家，他说“黑人对黑人的犯罪”远比警察的暴力更糟糕。沃克因被指控威胁其前妻的生命并戏剧性地夸大其作为商人的记录而受到审查。
埃比尼泽浸礼会教堂的牧师沃诺克拥护马丁·路德·金关于种族公正和平等权利的遗产。在乔治·弗洛伊德于2020年5月被警方杀害后，沃诺克阐述了该国与一种他称为“COVID-1619”的“病毒”的斗争，这一年，第一批奴隶抵达了现在的美国。在国会山，他抨击共和党人推动更严格的投票规则是“穿着新衣的吉姆·克劳”。
沃诺克的竞选经理昆廷·富尔克斯在一份声明中说，沃诺克“有着为改善所有格鲁吉亚人的生活而奋斗的记录”，他列举了沃诺克为免除学生贷款债务和解决孕产妇高死亡率所做的努力。
他说:“格鲁吉亚人民，不管他们是什么种族，都将决定谁最适合这个职位，谁最能代表格鲁吉亚人民。”。
沃克竞选团队的发言人马洛里·布朗特(Mallory Blount)表示，所有格鲁吉亚人，无论种族，都面临着民主党人制造的问题，沃克“厌倦了政客们不断根据肤色区分人们。”
沃克去年在作证反对为奴隶制赔偿时告诉众议院小组委员会，“黑人权力”被用来“制造白人犯罪”。
在他的回忆录《挣脱》中，沃克说他的母亲告诉他“颜色是看不见的”，做对或做错才是重要的。
“我从来都不喜欢代表我的人民的想法，”他写道。“我的父母让我相信，我代表着人类——人——而不是黑人、白人、黄种人或任何其他肤色或类型的人。”
尽管如此，佐治亚州的黑人共和党人希望沃克在大选期间努力争取非洲裔美国人社区。他们也相信他的个人故事，即克服障碍进入大学足球的顶级行列，然后NFL将在黑人选民中找到观众。
“自从我们摆脱奴隶制以来，自决一直是黑人社区的一件大事，”伦纳德·马西(Leonard Massey)说，他是佐治亚州东部查塔姆县共和党主席。"他实际上展示了如何进入下一个阶段."
In Georgia, 2 Black candidates to compete for Senate seat
COLUMBUS, Ga. --Wayne Black was one of the few African Americans in the crowd as about 100 people gathered recently at the Republican Party headquarters near Columbus, Georgia, to hear from U.S. Senate candidate and football legend Herschel Walker.
A member of the Muscogee County Republican Executive Committee, Black said he found a certain promise in Walker's candidacy, a GOP voice who could appeal to African Americans and others in Georgia who have traditionally voted Democratic.
“They identify with him from the standpoint of the American dream,” Black said. “You can start from nothing and if you work hard, you can achieve the American dream.”
But that optimism ran into headwinds about 100 miles to the north. As she left an Atlanta polling site, Wyvonia Carter said her choice in what might be the most competitive Senate race this year was not particularly complicated.
“You know I’m Black, right?” the 84 year-old said. “I’m a Democrat. That’s it.”
In this Deep South state where the painful history of slavery, segregation and racial injustice is ever-present, voters for the first time have selected two Black candidates to represent the major parties in a Senate race. After handily winning their respective primaries on Tuesday, Walker will take on Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a generalelectioncampaign that could help decide control of the Senate.
The race will test whether Democratic gains in 2020 were a blip or the start of a political realignment in a rapidly changing state. In November 2020, Joe Biden was the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state in 28 years, and just two months later, Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff flipped two longtime Republican Senate seats, handing theirpartya narrow majority in the Senate.
Black voters were crucial in helping Democrats secure those victories and will likely be decisive again this year.
The issue is less about whether Walker will break the bond that Black voters have had with Democratic candidates. It is more about whether Black voters, frustrated by a lack of progress in Washington on issues ranging from a policing overhaul to voting rights, simply sit thiselectionout. In a close election, even a small change in voting patterns could be decisive.
Republicans hope Walker's candidacy can at least neutralize the issue of race in the campaign.
“In this race, Black Georgians will not have to contend with the race issue,” said Camilla Moore, chair of the Georgia Black Republican Council. “And I really do believe by culture, we’re socially conservative. I think Herschel just has to be Herschel and tell his conservative message.”
But in interviews in recent weeks, many Black voters said they would not give Walker a second look because of his race. They said they were driven by policy considerations, and Walker, who was backed by former President Donald Trump and is generally in line with GOP orthodoxy, does not address their needs.
Louis Harden, a 58-year-old Black voter in Atlanta, said he is backing Warnock because of the senator's support for Medicaid expansion.
“It doesn’t matter about the color,” he said. “It’s just the issues, who's going to get the job done.”
There are only a few modern instances in which two Black people have emerged as the nominees in a Senate race.
Democrat Barack Obama faced Republican radio host and former diplomat Alan Keyes in his 2004 Senate campaign in Illinois. More recently, South Carolina's Tim Scott, the Senate's only Black Republican, was unsuccessfully challenged in 2016 by Thomas Dixon, a North Charleston pastor.
But the Warnock-Walker matchup is unique because it is playing out in a far more competitive state than Illinois, a Democratic stronghold, or South Carolina, where Republicans are dominant. Also, the candidates in Georgia are already well known, representing two institutions that are revered in the South: church and football.
Walker, among Georgia's most well-known sports figures, won a championship and the Heisman Trophy while at the University of Georgia in the 1980s. Warnock is the senior pastor at the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached.
“This is going to be a historic matchup,” said Stan Deaton, a scholar at the Georgia Historical Society.
But to make a dent in Warnock's support among Black voters, Walker will need to do more to appeal to the Black community, said Leah Wright Rigueur, a political historian at Johns Hopkins University who has written about efforts by Black Republicans to broaden the party's largely white base.
Republican candidates who do well among African American voters have the ability to craft a political identity that is independent from the party, something she said Walker has not done so far. Black voters also consider how a candidate treats his or her community and may view African American candidates who stick to Republican talking points more harshly than their white counterparts, Wright Rigueur said.
“And the reason why is because it’s viewed as a betrayal," she said. “It’s viewed as community betrayal.”
Walker has largely hewed to Republican messaging about race. He has defended Trump against criticism that Trump was racist, he has accused Black Lives Matter of wanting to destroy the country and he has said “Black-on-Black crime” is far worse than violence by police. Walker has come under scrutiny over allegations that he threatened his ex-wife's life and dramatically inflated his record as a businessman.
Warnock, the pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, has embraced King's legacy of racial justice and equal rights. After the killing of George Floyd by police in May 2020, Warnock expounded on the country’s struggle with a “virus” he called “COVID-1619” for the year when some of the first slaves arrived in what is now the United States. On Capitol Hill, he has attacked Republicans’ push for tighter voting rules as “Jim Crow in new clothes.”
Warnock “has a record of fighting to improve the lives of all Georgians,” Warnock campaign manager Quentin Fulks said in a statement, citing as examples Warnock's efforts to forgive student loan debt and address the high rates of maternal mortality.
"The people of Georgia, no matter their race, will make the decision about who is up for the job and best able to represent the people of Georgia,” he said.
A spokesperson for Walker's campaign, Mallory Blount, said all Georgians, regardless of race, are facing problems created by Democrats and that Walker is “sick and tired of politicians constantly dividing people based on the color of their skin.”
Walker told a House subcommittee last year while testifying against reparations for slavery that “Black power” is used to “create white guilt.”
In his memoir, “Breaking Free,” Walker said his mother taught him that “color was invisible” and doing right or wrong was what mattered.
“I never really liked the idea that I was to represent my people,” he wrote. “My parents raised me to believe that I represented humanity — people — and not black people, white people, yellow people, or any other color or type of person.”
Still, Black Republicans in Georgia expect Walker to try hard to woo the African American community during the general election. They also believe his personal story about overcoming obstacles to reach the top ranks of college football and then the NFL will find an audience among Black voters.
“Self-determination has always been a big thing in the Black community since we got out of slavery," said Leonard Massey, who is Black and is chairman of the Chatham County Republican Party in eastern Georgia. “He actually shows how to get to the next level.”
