These Black Republicans are hoping to defy losing streak in majority-white MAGA party

If recent history is any indication, the hopeful Black Republican candidates seeking higher office could face headwinds.

When it comes to statewide races, Black candidates have not fared well in President Donald Trump‘s majority-white MAGA Republican Party. In next year’s 2026 elections, four candidates running for higher office are hoping to break a losing streak for Black Republicans in higher office during Trump’s nearly decade-long era in conservative politics.

U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt is seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas against incumbent Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The winner of that March 3 primary contest will face either Rep. Jasmine Crockett or Texas State Rep. James Talarico in the November general election.

In Michigan, U.S. Rep. John James is seeking the governorship in the Great Lakes State, where he has previously lost bids for the U.S. Senate in 2018 and 2020.

In Florida, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who is the only Black Republican to secure an endorsement from Trump thus far, is running for governor.

And in Kentucky, fomer Attorney General Daniel Cameron is running to succeed longtime U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who is retiring. Cameron lost his campaign for Kentucky governor in 2023.

Hunt, James, Donalds and Cameron all stand to make Black history if victorious in their respective statewide races as a Black American has never held those offices.

If recent history is any indication, the hopeful Black Republican candidates seeking higher office could face headwinds. This past November, Virginia Winsome Earle-Sears, whom Trump did not endorse, significantly lost her bid for governor, despite becoming the state’s first Black woman lieutenant governor.

Similarly, Herschel Walker, the 2022 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia lost his statewide race despite being handpicked by Trump. Walker was most recently appointed by Trump as the U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas.

While Herschel Walker proved an endorsement from Trump doesn’t necessarily gaurantee success at the ballot box, it’s certainly welcomed by Black candidates who are very noticeably part of a minority in a majority-white party that still backs Trump by 84%, though slightly down from 90%, according to Gallup polling.

“It’s critical,” Hunt told CNN about the importance of Trump endorsement for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas. “Donald Trump’s endorsement is absolutely incredible in any Republican primary in this great nation.”

But in a party led by a president who has made diversity a dirty word and backed it up with executive orders, some of the Black conservatives on the ballot next year are already facing pushback from either the electorate or GOP insiders. And in a party that emphasizes “merit-based” opportunities over DEI, not landing a Trump endorsement or a win on Election Day potentially drives home the message that Black Republican candidates aren’t the “best and brightest” the party has to offer.

Hunt has faced calls to drop out of the Texas Senate race from his own party’s leadership, including fellow Black Republican, U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. However, the Texan has remained defiant, making clear he plans to stay in the race even if Trump endorses another a candidate in his race.

John James in Michigan was handed a dose of reality when he came in fourth place among Republican candidates running for governor in a Michigan Republican Party poll.

Then there’s the alleged racism Black Republicans say they face in their own party. Hunt recently called out one of Scott’s top staffers who made a joke about his supposedly ashy ankles. Hunt called it a “racist trope.”

Despite Trump’s endorsement, Byron Donalds’ campaign for governor has faced a “pile-on” from Republicans in Florida. When an opponent in his race called him a “slave” to donors and corporate interests, Donalds’ chief strategist replied, “Donalds has spent his life as a strong, Black conservative voice defending President Trump and America First agenda so he is used to and unfazed by racist twitter trolls who attack him for that.”