Mitt Romney makes his pitch today to black voters, who overwhelmingly supported President Obama four years ago and have consistently voted Democrats into the White House for decades.When he addresses the annual NAACP convention today, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee is likely to frame his remarks around the economy. It is the same way he reaches out to Hispanics, by showing the impact of Obama's handling of the economy on their livelihoods.
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The fact that Romney is even speaking to the nation's oldest civil rights group is noteworthy, given the history of some recent GOP presidential candidates and the NAACP.
Bob Dole declined the group's invitation in 1996. George W. Bush spoke to the NAACP in 2000 but then skipped the group's annual convention for five years while he was president.
Romney also has a tough act to follow in his own family. His father, George, fought anti-segregation efforts while he was governor of Michigan and sought to end discrimination in housing when he was in the Nixon administration.
In 1964, the elder Romney declined to back Barry Goldwater as the GOP presidential nominee because of concerns that the Arizonan was vying for the votes of white segregationists in the South. And in the run-up to his own 1968 presidential bid, George Romney toured urban areas decimated by race riots in Detroit and other cities.
In a 2007 interview with Meet the Press during his first presidential bid, Mitt Romney touched upon his father's civil rights work. "My dad's reputation ... and my own has always been one of reaching out to people and not discriminating based upon race or anything else."
(Contributing: Associated Press)
