Former Democrat believes Jackson County’s urban core is ready for Republican leadership | KCUR

Derron Black estimates that it has been at least 50 years since Missouri’s 9th District has served in the state Senate, most of the Black neighborhood which covers the East Side, Raytown and Kansas City’s portion of south Kansas City, elected a Republican to represent it.

He had been proud of it in recent years. But now he sees the district’s decades-long Democratic leadership streak as a problem.

“We still have the same political establishment. We still have the same rhetoric,” Black says. “In my opinion, the condition has not improved. The quality of life has actually deteriorated!”

Black, a 41-year-old Navy veteran from District 9, is running for the first time for the Republican Party. He he ran unsuccessfully in other state offices in the area as a Democrat in 2012, 2016 and 2020.

He says his decision to switch parties was a decades-long process fueled by what he saw as the failure of local and state Democratic candidates to deliver economic development and lasting quality of life improvements to the East Side communities where he grew up. He says many voters in the district, especially Black voters, feel the same frustration. Community leaders and his current opponent, Democrat Barbara Washington, say otherwise.

“The needs of the 9th District today,” Washington explains, “are not parallel to what the Missouri Republican Party appears to be.”

“A lot of people changed the party.”

The current Democratic voting streak in District 9 began in the mid-1960s.

Bishop James Tindall, former Jackson County legislator and leader of a Black political organization Freedom enabledsays the Democratic leanings in the 9th District began with the Civil Rights Movement.

“At that time, most of the African-American community was Republican,” Tindall explains. “A lot of people (switched parties) because the Democratic Party got involved in the fight for civil rights.”

The shift of Black Americans to the Democratic Party can be largely attributed to… 1964 presidential electionswhen Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater courted southern white suburban voters by arguing that the decision on the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 should have been left to the individual states.

Goldwater’s opponent, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the bill into law shortly before Goldwater received his party’s nomination.

Rev. Dr. Vernon Howard, president Greater Kansas City Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conferencesays this change illustrates the struggle Black Americans face in finding support for their communities across the country.

“This is what matters to Black people. What kind of policies and what kind of laws are you going to introduce or apply for the benefit of black people?” says Howard. “It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, Democrat or Republican. This is the seriousness of the crisis we find ourselves in.”

Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga

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“We grew up very conservative.”

Derron Black believes voters in his district may believe, as he does, that Republican economic policies and Republican leadership are better suited to alleviate the crisis and secure resources for the area.

He also believes that older, more religious black voters in the area will identify more with conservative viewpoints than is commonly believed.

“For the most part, Black people in my generation had a very conservative upbringing,” Black says. “My great-grandfather was the pastor of our church. These ideas that are seen as liberal today were not the cornerstone of how we understand our experience.

Black claims that as a Democrat, he often strayed to the left of his core beliefs, specifically citing his religious upbringing as the source of some of his conservative values.

He argues that older, more religious black voters share this experience. But faith leaders like Howard disagree with Black’s assessment.

“There is no doubt that historically the church has been socially conservative,” Howard says. “Politically, the Church has historically been radical, progressive, and has stood up to the forces that were going to bring about change. There is not only one side to the Black Church.

Howard’s words reflect both current and historical findings. Data included in General Social Surveys 1972-2022 indicate that at least 70% of secular and religious Black voters consistently supported Democrats during this period.

Yet the same study shows a significant decline in Democratic Party support among subgroups of black voters, such as non-denominational and Catholic voters. But that doesn’t mean they’re leaving to support Republicans.

Instead, they withdraw completely. Reverend Howard believes this apathy illustrates the core conflict between modern conservatism and the struggle of Black Americans.

“Conservatism is not something that fascinates black people,” Howard says. “Conservatism has to do with protecting the status quo, with as few changes as possible… keeping everything as it is. This is not in the interest of Black people.”

“There’s just no energy for them.”

As he knocks on doors in the district, Black says the main type of voter he meets with is not Democrats. This is a person who has never voted at all.

“They are completely detached,” Black says. “Basically, they feel like their vote doesn’t count.”

The congressional districts in Missouri’s 9th Senate District have some of the lowest numbers of registered voters and some of the lowest voter turnout rates in the state. in any precinct in Jackson County.

Black blames the failure of elected Democrats for this apathy, arguing that the party has little to show for decades of control.

Bishop Tindall, who helped elect many of these Democrats, says the Republican-controlled state legislature is responsible for the inaction. Points to previous attempts to change the district area as evidence that Republicans were trying to weaken the political power of Jackson County’s urban center.

“(Our interests) are not represented in the state,” Tindall says. “The Republicans in power have rigged the entire city so that we won’t have the representation to get the resources we need.”

Most recently, the 9th district underwent redistricting in 2023expanding east to include additional areas of Raytown and far eastern Kansas City, while clearing out much of the historic northeast area.

Black says the best way to help the district is to elect a Republican who will work with the majority in Jefferson City. He believes he has found a way to engage the area’s most apathetic residents.

“For the younger generation, African Americans, the energy of the Democratic Party is just not for them,” he says.

Black sees an opportunity to build support for future GOP candidates and the party as a whole, especially by connecting with young black men.

He returned to his personal contacts with prominent people KC influencers and people in the local hip-hop scene to convey his campaign’s message.

His strategy mirrors that of former President Donald Trump, who Black supportskeeps doing national scale trying to gain a foothold among black voters.

“That’s one of the things I learned from the Bernie Sanders campaign,” Black explains. “If you can create energy among young people, the message will kind of spread to other areas you’re trying to reach.”

Black admits that this strategy has had limited success locally. However, recent national polls suggest that youth-focused policies may be pushing new generations of Black voters to sympathize with the Republican Party.

According to data published by 2024 National Black Voter Project42% of black Americans aged 18 to 29 believe the Republican Party has been at least somewhat friendly towards them, a full 18 points higher than black Americans their parents’ age.

For Reverend Howard, these national polls have no relevance to the everyday lives of District 9 residents.

He claims the local Republican Party has failed to earn the trust of black voters in the area, preferring instead to focus on development projects that benefit wealthy white residents.

“The fact is that conservatives would typically prefer, as is currently the case, build the Four Lights” says Howard, “even though we still have severe housing inequality in this city that mainly affects black and brown people and poor white people.”

Black says he and the local Republican Party are working to earn that trust, but past election results show they face an uphill battle.

Only one Republican Party candidate has run to represent Missouri’s 9th District in the last 12 years. They received it 18% of the votes.