After a burst of high-octane partisan rhetoric and King's trademark wild gesticulating, a CNN reporter asks if King voted for Bush in 2000. "I think I did," King answers. "I don't really know."
Along with former Miss America Erika Howard and Education Secretary Rod Paige, King is the face of the GOP's new "empowerment tour" campaign to woo black voters, a segment of the population that has historically backed Democrats in the White House by overwhelming margins.
Winston Wilkinson, of Utah, the only African American national committeeman on the Republican National Committee, is not sure if it's working or if it's wise. And if the GOP doesn't fine-tune its message to black communities, Wilkinson fears the party may soon "push blacks aside" and focus all its recruitment efforts on Latinos.
"A lot of blacks perceive the black ambassadors from the party to be in the back pockets of some of the far right wing, and a lot of times they see the far right of the party as unfortunately being racist," says Wilkinson, who also is a delegate to this week's GOP national convention.
That Wilkinson and a national committeewoman from the U.S. Virgin Islands are the only blacks on the Republican National Committee, where the long-term goals and policy of the party are set, speaks volumes to the party's difficulty attracting African American voters.
"The Republicans should stop trying to fool the American public" that they are welcoming to blacks, said William Marshall Jr., Democratic National Committee director of African American media. "Until they begin to truly represent the interests and aspirations of African Americans, they will never be seen as a political party that celebrates diversity."
Changing GOP stereotypes in the minds of black voters has become the consuming passion of Wilkinson's current political work. A former Salt Lake County councilman and unsuccessful 2002 congressional candidate, he is pushing national committee leaders to let him organize a cohesive message to blacks that, like Bush's recent shift toward the middle, emphasizes a more moderate "compassionate conservatism."
Albeit risky, he envisions a message similar to entertainer Bill Cosby's recent call for blacks to take personal responsibility for their own economic situations, rather than blame the government or the white establishment.
"Bill Cosby has made enough money and he's been around, so he can say what he wants to and Jesse Jackson and the NAACP can't attack this man because what he is saying is true and they know it," says Wilkinson. "It's easier to attack me if I say it because I'm a black Mormon Republican and I've 'lost touch.'
If the challenge is not engaged now, Wilkinson worries the Republican Party will concede black voters to Democrats in favor of putting all their resources toward attracting the exploding U.S. population of Latinos.
"Historically, blacks have voted 97 percent of the time for the Democratic Party, and our party leaders wonder is it worth the effort [to court blacks] if we want to maximize our resources," he says. "I don't want the party to give up on this."
One reason can be found with another African American delegate to the GOP convention from Utah, state Sen. James Evans, who wrested control of a North Salt Lake legislative seat that had long been held by Democrats. Evans says one of the advantages to recruiting more diversity to the Republican Party in the Mountain West is that the traditional dividing lines of ethnic party affiliation are more faintly drawn than in the more populous Eastern states.
"That's what I love about the Intermountain West, that you can rise based on your level of ability in the fashion of true Americana," said Evans. "Compared to some other areas of the country where we have those historic separations, Utah has been much more aggressive in including various populations in the Republican Party."
