Rep. Byron Donalds would be the only Republican member of the Congressional Black Caucus — if they let him join.
But the group has not provided an invitation to Donalds for the last six months and appears to be trying to block him from becoming a member based on his party and politics.
“Just because I have a disagreement on certain policy matters from the Congressional Black Caucus, that doesn’t mean that I’m not black, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about black America. It means I have a difference of opinion,” the Florida Republican told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
Donalds has spoken to caucus leaders in the past but has not heard from any of its members since news broke the group was blocking his membership. He expects to hear more next week when the House returns to regular session.
“I was in the Legislative Black Caucus when I was in the Florida Legislature,” Donalds said. “And I was pretty involved with the National Conference of Black state legislators. So for me, it was just a natural progression.”
BYRON DONALDS WILL PUT IT TO YOU PLAINLY
The freshman congressman is one of two black Republicans in the House. Utah Rep. Burgess Owens said before his election he did not plan to join the caucus. That is not unusual; now-Sen. Tim Scott also declined to join the group when he was in the House.
Republican members of the caucus are few and far between. Still, a number of former Republicans have been members, including former Utah Rep. Mia Love, who said she would try to dismantle the caucus from the inside out, and former Florida Rep. Allen West, who went on to become chair of the Texas state Republican Party.
BuzzFeed News, which first reported Donalds went without an invitation to the group for 6 months, mentioned some Democrats refuse to work with Republicans who voted against certifying the election results. Donalds was one of those Republicans.
Meanwhile, Donalds was ambushed during an interview about his membership status with a supercut of controversial comments from former President Donald Trump.
“Do you think that your defense of a person who said things like that might be incongruent with the mission of the CBC?” asked CNN host Brianna Keilar, who is white.
Donalds responded the former president has nothing to do with the issue at hand.
“I thought it was cheap, and I thought it was dumb,” Donalds said of the CNN tactic. “I didn’t realize that my support of the president, somehow, you know, weakened my blackness.”
Donalds said his views on policies and politics have remained consistent pre-Trump, during Trump, and post-Trump.
CNN patronizes Rep. @ByronDonalds, a black GOP congressman, after he calls out the @TheBlackCaucus for denying him entry.
Keilar: Your ideas are “incongruous” with their “mission”
Donalds: “As a black man in America, I’m allowed to have my own thoughts” pic.twitter.com/vN9j4KXpNh
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 10, 2021
In response to Donalds’s public complaint, the Congressional Black Caucus did not directly address the status of his membership inquiry.
“The Congressional Black Caucus remains committed to fighting for issues that support the Black community, including the police accountability bill, protecting voting rights, and a jobs bill that helps our communities,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The vague comment could be interpreted as a hint that those in the caucus believe Donalds’s policy positions are inconsistent with its own values. For example, members of the group are supportive of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which aims to strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after a 2013 Supreme Court decision found the formula for determining whether a state’s voting laws can be reviewed by a federal court is outdated; President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan; and ending qualified immunity for police officers.
It’s true that Donalds is not on the same page as those in the caucus on those issues. The John Lewis bill, he said, would bring back federal preclearance for changing voting laws in areas where it is not needed.
When it comes to police reform, he said he sees opportunities for changes.
“But if you want to get into qualified immunity, it’s going to cause major implications for law enforcement agencies on a local level,” Donalds said.
And with Biden’s jobs plan?
“How many jobs plans have we seen? They’re not effective,” he said. “What works for people getting jobs is a robust economy.”
Donalds said he has his own ideas that “may not be the bills that they’re supporting” but insists that “those are ideas and ideals that the caucus should be open to hearing. And that’s the purpose of being in the caucus.”
Donalds knows being the only Republican in the caucus would likely mean policies the caucus supports might not be in line with his own values, but he is used to that from Florida’s state-level caucus.
“If I didn’t agree with the policy, I would vote against the caucus position, but there were times where they did want us to make a caucus position or the caucus in Florida wanted to push for a policy or an appropriation. And if I was in agreement that I helped try to get across the line. And I think that’s fine,” he said.
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Despite the snub, Donalds says he has received a wealth of support.
“You’re always gonna have naysayers and haters, but you can’t really worry too much about that,” he said.
