ST. PAUL, Minn.--Former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts Jr. (Rep., Okla.), now a lobbyist in the nation’s capital, said he supports the Republican presidential nominee, but may not work for his election over the Democratic nominee.U.S. Sen. John McCain (Rep., Ariz.) is trying to defeat U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (Dem., Ill.) in the Nov. 4 general election.
Sen. Obama is the first Black to become the nominee of a major political party. Mr. Watts is the only Black to ever represent Oklahoma in Congress.
“I told them after Labor Day I’d give them some dates and I would help,” Mr. Watts said, “but I’ve been so frustrated with the establishment in the party that I just have been pretty hesitant to get involved.
“It’s not like I don’t have things to do.”
Mr. Watts spoke to a meeting of the Oklahoma and Louisiana delegates attending the Republican National Convention.
The former congressman, who plans next year to launch a television news network targeted at a Black audience, said he has not talked with the McCain campaign.
“They’ve pitched me stuff over the last month,” he said.
“We’ve done a pathetic job of building relationships within the African-American community,” Mr. Watts said of the Republican Party. “We take the evangelical community for granted. We use push-button issues to get them to go vote.”
Mr. Watts, who started his own lobbying, consulting and public affairs companies after not seeking re-election in 2002, said the party has to become more diverse.
It has been reported that the number of Black delegates at this year’s Republican convention had dropped by 68 percent since the last national GOP gathering.
All the major GOP presidential candidates this year were white men, Mr. Watts noted, but Democrats had a Black man, a woman and a Hispanic man, Bill Richardson, involved as major contenders for their party’s presidential nomination.
“I’ve just gotten to the point that I’ve said, ‘O.K., you want me to serve the meal, you’ve gotta let me help buy the groceries,’ ” Mr. Watts commented.
At the convention, Mr. Watts told the mostly white crowd the party has to be more inclusive.
The former Republican congressman said he is disappointed none of the major presidential candidates, including Sen. Obama, had Blacks in key positions on their campaign staffs.
Mr. Watts said he supports Sen. McCain even though he is “extremely proud” of what Sen. Obama has done on his way to possibly becoming the first Black president.
“We’ve just got some policy differences,” he said, such as abortion and taxes, but, if he wins, he is my president.”
He said he is fascinated by Sen. McCain choosing as his runningmate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.
“[She] is going to be attacked like you wouldn’t believe,” he said. “She is about to be on the ride of her life, unfortunately,” he said. “[Those attacks won’t involve] just her. It’s going to be her entire family.”
Former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts Jr. as he gave the Landon Lecture of Public Affairs at the University of Kansas in 2002.
