The Daily Signal - 'Despite the Liberal Media' Narrative, My Community Is 'Very Conservative,' Says Black Strategist

Episode Date: September 30, 2019

Raynard Jackson is the president and CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates and a political strategist in Washington, D.C. Jackson joins The Daily Signal podcast to explain why the values of the African-American community are conservative at their roots, and how those on the Right should seek to communicate with communities of color. Also on today's episode: • We also read your letters to the editor. You can leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. • And we share a good news story about one child sponsorship organization that has just flipped the script on their sponsorship model. Watch these videos to learn more: World Visions New Model & Mary's Sponsorship Story. The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. All of our podcasts can be found at dailysignal.com/podcasts. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, September 30th. I'm Jared Stettman. And I'm Virginia Allen. Today we share Rob's interview with Raynard Jackson, president and CEO of Raynard Jackson and Associates, a political strategist, and a friend of the Heritage Foundation. Plus, we read your letters to the editor and a good news story about one child sponsorship organization that has just flipped a script on their sponsorship model. Before we get to today's show, I want to give you.

give my colleague, Jared Stepman, a moment to share a little bit about his new book. Thank you very much, Virginia. My new book called The War on History, the Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past, which breaks down American history and talks about how it's under attack by many on the left, set to be released this week, October 1st. And I'm going to have an interview with Katrina Trinko, who's an editor with The Daily Signal, who will talk to me about that book this week. That's great.

great. I look forward to hearing the interview and I'm really excited to read the book, Derek. Thank you, Virginia. Absolutely. Now, stay tuned for today's show. Coming up next. I'm joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by Rainer Jackson. He's the president and CEO of Rainer Jackson and Associates, a great political strategist in

Washington, D.C. and a longtime friend of our president, K. Coles James and the Heritage Foundation. It's great to have you in the studio. Thank you, Rob. Thank you for inviting me. You know, you and I are somebody, we get to know each other. at a meeting that we both attended on Capitol Hill. And the thing that I loved about you is you were always bringing new ideas to the table,

particularly about how conservatives can do a better job of communicating and taking their ideas into the black community. You've written a piece for The Daily Signal about this. You recently had a meeting at the White House about this. So I'm hoping that we can spend some time here in this interview hearing some of your ideas and how conservatives can do a better job. So thanks for joining us. Thank you. So you write for the Daily Signal, your first column that you've,

you've written for us, that the black community is naturally conservative. What do you mean by that? Well, within the black community, despite what the liberal media projects us to be, we are very conservative, very churchgoing. And I'm telling you, even today, Rob, there's a strict sense of discipline in the black household, whether it's a traditional family or a single parent, black women. They don't play with their kid. if you get out of line, you're going to get spank, period.

And the black family is the key to the strength in the black community. Because I remember when growing up as a little kid, I would sit on my grandmother's lap and she would sit up there and talk about what's right, what's wrong, what to do, what not to do, family history. And so when I was in college, I would come home on a weekend. And my parents were fine with me going out. my fellas hanging out at the club and all that stuff. But come Sunday morning, 8 o'clock, it's like, boy, are you ready to go to church? Not boy, are you going to church?

It was no option. So, yeah, I can hang out all night, 7, 8 in the morning if I wanted to. But come 8 o'clock, we're going to church, period. And I think those values that you get from having that belief in faith and going to a religious organization like a church, you know, certainly it's definitely an alignment with the traditional American values that conservatives seem to embrace. race, then where do you see the challenge then that conservatives face in terms of breaking through and communicating to members of that community?

Well, it's very simple. When you say conservative to black folks, what we hear is Strom Thurman Jesse Helms back in the day. And for your audience, who may not be familiar, Strom Thurman and Jesse Ham, Strong Thurman ran on a state's rights on the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948 for president. Jesse Hems, Senator North Carolina, Strom Thurman's senator from South Carolina. segregationist, races, but both of them over a period of years, they kind of left that legacy and they became very supportive, for example, of historically black colleges, which you have several of them in South and North Carolina.

But that's what we hear. And so what I tell conservatives, as opposed to using the word conservative, a better term in the black community is traditional values. Because, again, that transports you back when you were a little kid sitting on grandma's lap. And that's just kind of a verbal nuance that conservatives need to understand. That's a great point. Thank you for sharing that. But I want to ask you, because historically, going back to Abraham Lincoln, I mean, the Republican Party for its at least early history was associated in many ways with the abolitionist movement and helping obviously to fight the civil war and to give blacks and African Americans those rights.

And then all of the sudden, today, it's the complete opposite. So where did the Republican Party? Now, I'd separate that from conservative specifically go wrong. Well, number one, they decided to throw away the black vote in 1968 with the adoption by President Nixon of the Southern strategy, which meant they decided there was worth more for them to go after white Southern Democrats, the old Dixiecraft in the South, at the expense of the black community who's been the most loyal voting bloc up until. that time for the Republican Party. We were how blacks are today for the Democrats. We were that same type of loyalty to the Republicans back in the day. And even with it, Nixon got a third of the black vote, even with that. And so until Republicans, Rob, and the conservative movement deal with this issue of race,

they will never, ever get a massive amount of black support, period. But you're taking it head on. I mean, you went to Florida. you worked for Governor Ron DeSantis, Ben candidate Ron DeSantis, and you made significant inroads. And really, in that close election, were able to, I think, make up the difference. So tell us what happened in Florida and how you were able to do that. Yeah, Governor DeSantis is a good friend. And when he was in Congress, last September, a year ago this month, rather, matter of fact,

he called me after he became the nominee and asked me to come down and serve as one of his senior advisors. And, of course, I agreed to it. And he said, hey, I want you to go and just do what you do. I know the kind of work you can do. And you let me know what you need from the campaign. And we're going to make sure we get it to you. We were polling at 2% of the black vote then. We ended up getting 17% of the black vote.

And the two issues that resonated was entrepreneurship and school choice and vouchers. And our opponent, Andrew Gillum, the mayor, of Tallahassee at the time, two of his campaign platforms were to raise taxes on small minority businesses and to get rid of the school choice voucher program in Florida. And the governor, DeSantis said that, no, though the two of my strongest plan, as a result of that, we got just enough black support that that was his margin of victory. And if we can replicate that across the country and within the conservative movement,

blacks will support a conservative candidate, but no one goes into the community and asks for their support. Well, more recently, you were at the White House with a number of other black Americans who went to the press secretary, went to the vice president's communications director and others, and talked about the importance of making sure that the message is getting out. I want to ask you two parts. I want to hear more about the meeting and why it was so significant. I understand that a meeting like this didn't take place when President Obama was. in the White House. And secondly, I want to hear your assessment of President Trump and his policies and how they have impacted the black community.

Well, interesting. Two interesting questions. We, the newspaper, National Newspaper Publishers Association, NMPA, that's a consortium of the over 200 black newspapers in the country. Their executive board was in town two weeks ago for some other meetings. And so they had been complaining because they syndicate my weekly column to over these 200 newspapers about access to the administration when their reporters are trying to do stories, they can't get calls returned because no one knows who they are.

And a lot of times, let's face it, Rob, conservatives and Republicans, when they get a call from a black media outlet, their default position is going to be a hit piece. So therefore, we don't return their call. And that's garbage. And so I called the White House, and me and Pastor Mark Burns, close support of the presidents, and the White House, Stephanie Grisham, Hogan Gettley, and Darren Miller from the vice president's press office. They were so excited. They said, can we get a meeting with them this week while in town?

And we said, yeah. And they moved heaven and earth on their schedule to sit and spend an hour with us to talk about what these newspaper publishers issues were. And we got a lot of work done. And that issue of access, they committed then. that that would no longer be an issue. Let me make sure our listeners know you wrote about this meeting directly in LifeZet. Encourage our listeners to check out your piece. It's called Trump's White House does more for black media members than liberal press will ever tell you.

And then also Fred Lucas, our White House correspondent at The Daily Signal, covered the story as well. It's headline Trump White House pledges to boost outreach to black media outlets. So we encourage our listeners to check out both of those stories to learn more. So tell me a little bit about the Trump administration and the Trump administration. policies. You and I got to know each other during the tax cut push back in 2017. Of course, that was a big initiative in the president's first year. You helped take that message to new communities. It's obviously had a tremendous impact on the economy overall. We also see that black unemployment's at record lows. Is President Trump getting the credit that he deserves for

the policy season? Of course not. The liberal media is not going to do it for sure. And within the black media, I think, and we talked about this at the White House, and I was over there last week talking with them as well as a follow-up on some other issues. We need, we, the administration and Republicans and conservatives, we need to do a better job of effectively communicating the successful legislation that this administration has done that's benefiting the black community. This administration had done a lot to help the historically black colleges that has not been, the story has not been effectively told. And so when the president goes to his town hall and rallies across the country

and talks about the low unemployment in the black community, those are great statistics. But as I told the White House, we have to breathe life into those statistics, put meat on those bones. And we have to show the human face of those statistics. And we have to start bringing out human faces and putting a face with a face with those statistics, and they want to have another conversation next week about what that means on a practical level.

What I told them, for example, when the White House talks about the tax cut in 2017 that we worked on, wouldn't it be great for the president to have two or three black entrepreneurs to talk about how their firm has benefited from the tax cut? And as a result of those tax cut, they've had to hire more people and how their revenues have increased as a result. Now we got something to work with. We had a visual and we got the facts about Republicans and conservatives are greatest statistics, horrible at weaving a story. Well, those sound like great stories that we'd like to tell at The Daily Signal.

So let's keep in touch about that. We've done several already about the tax cuts. And I think that there are certainly more that have gone untold. So I'd like to know more about them. Now, we've talked about some of the economic pieces. Obviously, HBCUs, there's another piece that you brought up. What are some of the other policies that you think President Trump might not be getting credit for that have had an impact positively on the black community?

Oh, religious freedom. Not only just overseas because that's a big issue, Christians are being persecuted, for example, in northern Nigeria. And no one talks about that Boko Haram is there. And if they find out you are a Christian, they will put a tire, car tire around your neck, set it on fire and torture you. Yeah. And they forced little girls who say they're a Christian either to renounce their Christianity, they rape them, and then kill them. That's going on right now.

And then domestically, a lot of black churches are very frustrated until President Trump comes along because some of these churches are getting federal money. But then being told, if you take federal money, you cannot talk about Christianity and faith because you took federal money. And President Trump is saying, no, we want you to do. take federal money if you're impacting your local community. And we know that your success is predicated on your Christian faith and values instilling in those constituents you're working with. So it's foolish to deny you opportunity because of faith. Because faith is the one that keeps these people off of drugs and out of being homelessness, homeless. And so the federal government wants you to stop preaching the solution, really? And so he's getting a lot of credit

for that in a black church. That story has not been told. That's great to know. That's great to know. You know, the thing I love about your columns is that you're very honest. You tell it like it is. You're not afraid to pull punches and whatnot and you've tackled some tough topics. I mean, you're not afraid to call out people

when you think that they've done something wrong. So tell me how do you approach writing your column and choosing the topics that you do? And what kind of feedback do you get when sometimes maybe you touch on a more controversial issue? Well, Ralph, thanks a little. lot for helping me out with this, okay? Good thing you're not a publicist, man. But, you know,

what's funny is, and a lot of my clients in music, because I had to work a lot with R&B artists, and we're in the studio talking, and they are amazed that my writing is the same as their writing songs. There's really no difference because a lot of times I sit down at the keyboard, I may have in my mind I'm going to write about subject matter A, but then my friend, my friend's fingers just kind of take a life of their own. And what I originally sat down to write about has nothing to do what I just wrote. And so a lot of time, I just stream of consciousness

and I have no idea what I'm going to write until I actually sit at the keyboard and I see the finished product. And as I go back over some of the columns where I've written, it's like, that came out of you? I'm stunned. And so, yeah, you're right, Rob. I've been accused of being blunt and very honest,

but I'm just at a point of life, Rob, where I just don't have time to be all touchy-filly. If you ask me a question or if I take a position, everything I've ever written in the column, I believe. So it's not like I'm writing for effect or to cause controversy. If I write it, I believe it, period. And so a lot of times when I call out people, what's amazing is I get so many emails saying, I'm glad you said that they don't want to call out people. because, and I've had some people in the party, to be honest with you, Rob, call me and said,

hey, if you toned down some of your writings, we could help you with more opportunity within the party. And my response is, my integrity is not for sale. My columns are for sale, but not my integrity. And yes, I probably have been denied some opportunities because of some of the bluntness in my column. But I challenge anyone who reads my column, Rob, to argue with me about the first.

truthfulness of what I wrote. Now, you may not like what I wrote. You may not like the verbiage I use, but you're not going to argue with my facts. Those are true and they're verifiable. And so I'm willing to live the consequences. Well, it takes a lot of courage to have strong opinions. And I certainly appreciate sitting across from somebody who does and has the integrity to do that. So thank you. You know, I want to ask you about one of the recent ones because I found it so enlightening. Donald Trump is the Dennis Rodman of politics. Tell me how you came up with that. Well, it's funny.

MSNBC was doing a slam piece on the president as they usually do. And something popped on my computer screen about Dennis Rodman. And I'm like, that's interesting. Donald Trump is the Dennis Robbins of politics, meaning a lot of people think Dennis Rodman was crazy. He was a fool. He was a before. phone, but then when you stopped to think about it, he was so good at what he did, Dennis Rodman. Yes.

Now, one person in NBA would have turned down an opportunity to have Dennis Robbins on their team. Dennis Rodman played for the Chicago Bulls and the San Antonio Spares and a few other team. And what was so interesting about him, a lot of people had a problem with his antics off the court. Remember when he wore the wedding dress? Most people didn't realize he got paid $10 million to wear that dress. You offered me that, Rob. I'm in a dress tonight, okay?

But the thing about it is, when Dennis Robben showed up on the court, he was, remember, he was named seven times in a row, NBA player of the year. He was a rebound leader for seven to ten years in a row. So when he got on the court, he delivered the goods. So it is with President Trump. You may not like some of his tweets. You may not like how he responds to him being attacked by opponents. But if you go to war, you want him in the foxhole with you. Because if you lose, the guy that won is going to have blood all over them.

And that's what conservatives like about this president. He fights for the conservative agenda. And so with the president comes a lot of theatrics and drama, like Dennis Rodman, but there's nobody privately who's going to say, I wouldn't want this president on my side. And that's how I connected to do. That's certainly true. That definitely is. Raynor Jackson, you're a Pulitzer Award nominated columnist. You can find your most recent work at DailySignal.com. What haven't we talked about that you'd like our listeners to know about you? Well, about me. Most folks are shocked when they find I went to Orobor University and I'm from

St. Louis. And one of the things, I used to work with Oral for four years, I used to be one of the cameraman for the TV show. And he would always tell me, go into every man's world and meet them at the point of their need. And I've never forgotten that. And any student there remembers that. I mean, they may forget their mother's name, but they're not going to forget that statement Oro Roberts used to say. And so back of the day when I moved up here in the early 90s, Rob, I would be walking down the street, like on K Street, like K and 9th and 10th, 11th, 11th, 12th street, which is all upscale now. Back in the day, used to have prostitution and drug dealers and all.

So I may be walking down the street with a friend, and you would have prostitutes calling me by name. And my buddy's look at me like, whoa, these girls actually know your name? Are you patron? I say, heck no. But what I found interesting about or go into every man's world and meet them at the point of their need, I would go into the red light district where the prostitutes were. I just wanted to hear their story. And you know what, Rob, most of these women who were on the street corner were not dumb people.

A lot of them had college degrees, but they fell on various levels of hard time, and they did what they had to do to make it. Now, whether I agree with it or not, but I just found when you make choices, I don't have to agree with your choice to find out, to just sit down and talk with you, to find out what your story is. And a lot of them I ended up helping out a transition to getting back on their feet. But, you know, people tend to believe that if a person doesn't agree with you somehow, you should have nothing to do it. And I'm just the opposite.

And people are amazed when I walk into a Democrat event, which I go to a lot of them. And they're like, wait a minute, I thought you were Republican. Yeah, I am very Republican, but my buddy's hosting this event. So I'm coming out to support him. I don't agree with a daggone thing. He's saying politically, but he's my buddy. Well, that is a theme, it seems we keep touching on on this show, and it's really important for our listeners to remember that, as you said, meet people where they are. You don't necessarily have to agree with everything that they believe in, but there are a lot of things that we can do, particularly conservatives can do to, I think, make inroads if we show up and engaging conversation.

Rob, it's interesting. You said it, and this is the opportunity. I think that this president, the Heritage Foundation, and the conservative movement all have in common that black folks are allies already. But we just never get invited to the party, number one. And the other thing, and maybe we can talk about this at a future date, Rob. One thing conservatives really need to understand is when they talk to the black community, they force us. to make a Hobson's choice, meaning they ask us, which are you? Are you black or are you Republican?

Are you black or are you conservative? As though you can't be both. And so a lot of times, and I think you and I talked about this, sometimes Republicans and conservatives do and say things that we in the black community find offensive and we call them out on that. That doesn't mean we're not good party people and good conservatives, But we can't have credibility in our community and try to ignore and justify an indignity done by someone in the movement. And so a lot of times when I've criticized the party in my columns like you indicated, I'll get emails from influential people in the party and the movement saying, well, we thought you were on our side and you criticized.

It's like I don't have to give up my blackness to be a part of the movement. I can be both, but wrong is wrong. And that doesn't mean because I criticize my party that I'm not a good supporter. The reason I stay in this party, Rob, when part of me tells me to leave this party because of some of the things we go through as black, the best way, that's the easy part would be for me to leave the party. The sign of a true leader is one who stands in the middle of difficulty and try to make it better from within.

And that's why when a lot of my Democratic friends say, why do you not leave this party? with the racist rhetoric coming out. It's like, yeah, that's easy for me to do. And then what? But if I stay engaged and keep speaking out using the media platform that I have, Rob, with the Daily Signal and the Heritage Foundation and other outlets, I can make change on the inside and make the movement and the party better for all of America. And that's what my goal is.

Well, as a fellow American, I applaud you for taking the harder course and not the easier path because we really need you out there advocating for these ideas and making sure that using media effectively. I think that that's so important. And that's one of the reasons we created the Daily Signal and why it's why we're so proud to have you as a new contributor to our team. So Raynard Jackson, how do our listeners go and find more about you if they want to follow you on Twitter or social media or other places?

Yes. Raynard, one, two, two, three is my Twitter. Just Google me. All my social media pops up. Black Americans for a Better Future is my 527 Super Pack, B-A-F, B-A-F, and my corporate consulting site is Raynaradjaxon.com. And, Rob, thank you so much for having it. It's been fun.

And time has gone by too fast, but maybe you'll have me back again over the next 30 or 40 years. We certainly will. Hopefully a lot sooner than that. Raynar Jackson has been my guest. Thanks so much. Thanks, right. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show in our morning.

Bell email newsletter. Virginia, who's up first? In response to Angela Saylor's article, America isn't just where I live. It's my home. Michael Sorgie writes, beautifully and wisely spoken, Angela, as President Lincoln said, quote, the best way for one to get ahead is to become the best you can, never worrying that another wishes you wishes to hinder you, end quote. Good people persistently press on doing good things regardless of and through any and all obstacles. I'm honored to be your brother in humanity. And in response to Rob Bluey's article, Keep Doing What You're Doing, Mike Pence's mission as vice president.

Martha Willis writes, I already thought our vice president was an honest man in spite of reading a negative biography about him. I've lived a long time and have learned to watch people. But they do in relation to what they say. A politician can say anything. But what they do and are actually able to accomplish is quite different. I appreciated the story because you reported what you actually heard with your own ears.

Vice President Pence is for real and so is President Trump. Thank you for what you do. Keep it up. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. Send an email to Letters at DailySignal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205. It's Monday. And what better way to start your week than with some good news? Virginia, over to you. Thanks, Jared.

Well, I have some great news to share today. I'm sure that we have all heard about child sponsorship organizations, nonprofits that will match a family or an individual with a child in need, often in a different country. Financial sponsorship will provide for a child's school fees, clothes, food, and so forth. And traditionally, how this works is that the family or individual, looks at a number of pictures and they choose which child they want to sponsor. For years, this is how World Vision operated.

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization headquartered in West Virginia, but with locations all over the world. They help children and families to overcome poverty and injustice. And like so many other sponsorship programs, they had always showed sponsors, pictures of children, and allowed the sponsors to choose. But now they have flipped the script. Kids are now able to choose their sponsor from a large board of photos. The new model is called Chosen and was beautifully explained in a recent promotional video by World Vision.

I'm going to leave a link to the video in the show notes and I really encourage you to watch it because it is just so touching. But I want to play a quick portion of that video now. Now the choice is theirs. The choice to take hold of their future to pursue their God-given goals. gifts to become change makers in their communities and even the choice to step into a life-changing relationship with you. World Vision featured the story of one little Kenyan girl named Mary and Zoiki. Mary is eight years old and wants to be a lawyer when she grows up. For her sponsor, Mary chose Yinnika Olambabi, age 35, to be her sponsor. Olambabi lives in Chicago and is a lawyer.

And she was overwhelmed when she saw the video of Mary, her sponsor child. We all have an opportunity to love on one another and to support one another. I even feel like it's giving me big shoes to fill in terms of being a great example for her, knowing that she saw something in me and, you know, wants to partner together in life. So she's giving me a lot. The idea of allowing a child to choose their sponsor is so simple yet so profound. To learn more about the chosen campaign, you can visit worldvision.org. Thanks for sharing that wonderful story, Virginia.

Yeah, it's definitely encouraging and just a pretty incredible model. I definitely encourage our listeners to take a look and find out more. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. The Daily Signal podcast comes to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurcchet Audio Network. All our shows can be found at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash briefing.

And if you like what you hear, please. leave us a review and a five-star rating. It really means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to other listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the DailySignal News. Have a great week. The Daily Signal podcast is executive produced by Rob Blewey and Virginia Allen. Sound design by Lauren Evans and Thalia Rambersad. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.