Daniel Cameron and the Nadir of Black Republicanism

The Kentucky AG's gubernatorial campaign highlights the troubling existence of Black GOP'ers

Daniel Cameron, the Black Republican Attorney General of Kentucky, just announced that he is running for Governor.

If the name sounds familiar, he is the same Daniel Cameron whose office did not recommend indicting any of the officers who murdered Breonna Taylor, the Black woman infamously murdered in her sleep while Louisville police executed a no-knock warrant.

Despite Ms. Taylor being shot multiple times and not the actual subject of the warrant, and the general area being sprayed with police gunfire, none of the officers involved have been held criminally responsible for their actions.

So after mishandling a high-profile, racially charged incident in his current position, Cameron is now seeking an even higher office.

His words and campaign messages demonstrate who he’s pandering to for votes. Hint: it’s not Black voters.

In his announcement speech, he touted his “religious” conservatism, saying that Kentucky needs a governor

"…who understand that only faith can keep us strong."

His campaign website proudly states that he served as legal counsel to Mitch McConnell.

His “Meet Daniel” page also says

“He also led the effort to keep churches and houses of worship open during the pandemic. And he has vigorously opposed and won challenges to the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional vaccine mandates for private businesses.”

From botching the Taylor case, to being a McConnell acolyte, to being another anti-vaccine troglodyte, Cameron’s campaign speaks to the moral and ethical paucity of being a Black Republican in today’s animistic political climate.

It’s one thing to be a conservative, to have conservative principles, to be a conservative Christian. It’s fine to be a Black conservative.

But never has it been more hypocritical or self-deluding to be a Black Republican.

I can comprehend many things, but not the moral and ethical gymnastics required to be both Black and Republican in 2022.

You’re Black and your party’s last president was a venal racist who said that “there were good people on both sides” of the Charlottesville White Supremacist rally, called African nations “S—hole countries,” touts the Great Replacement Theory, and panders to every evil racist and White Supremacist thought and action.

You’re Black and your political party is busy disenfranchising Black and minority voters across the country by limiting voting rights.

You’re Black and your party’s media mouthpiece spreads racism and prejudice under the guise of being “fair and balanced.”

You’re Black and your political party is the party of hatred and intolerance.

The GOP currently stands as a party that is morally bankrupt, autocratic, hypocritical, and solipsistic.

It’s never been easy to be a Black Republican since the days of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt passed. Both the presidents and their progressive politics are long gone.

So too are the days that Black people could support the party with even a modicum of conscience or self-respect.