Jennifer Steinhauer wrote an article in the New York Times (I should really get more sources!) last week titled: Black Hopefuls Picks This Year in G.O.P Races. According to the article, this year marks the largest surge in African Americans candidates since reconstruction. Some of these candidates site President Obama’s election as the driving force behind the surge, which is quite odd considering that the republican party has moved further to the right since the elections.

I personally believe that most of these candidates will have a hard time getting elected this year. They are not going to appeal to the republican base, which today consists of the tea party. No matter how hard they spin the situation they will still be black candidates trying to gain support from a movement whose message harbors racist undertones. Also, any kind of affiliation with the tea party will turn-off black voters most of whom already have a negative perception of the G.O.P . So these black republican candidates — in most cases — are not going to be able to gain support from either the base or their own community. This severely reduces their chances of building a coalition and getting past the primaries.