Bush courts minority voters

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla.

Following his own advice, Jeb Bush is taking his presidential campaign to the neighborhoods and churches where Hispanics and African Americans live and worship in an effort to broaden his appeal among minority voters.

The former Florida governor was in the central part of the state earlier this week, speaking to a diverse group of 150 pastors and other religious leaders, repeating his oft-stated pledge to campaign in “every nook and cranny” of the country. Today, he’ll be one of only two Republican presidential candidates to address the National Urban League’s annual conference, joining Hillary Rodham Clinton and two other Democrats seeking the White House.

“Republicans need to campaign everywhere. Not just amongst Latinos, but amongst blacks. It’s OK to get outside your comfort zone. It’s OK that not everybody agrees with my views,” Bush said Monday at his event outside Orlando. “It’s not OK to not try. That’s the difference.”

It’s a lesson from Bush’s time running for office in Florida that he’s now applying to his race for president.

In his first run for governor in 1994, Bush campaigned as a self-described “head-banging conservative” who said he’d do “probably nothing” for African Americans, explaining he instead wanted “equality of opportunity” for all people. Bush lost that race, and then took a different tack four years later.