A new group is beginning this week with a mission of increasing the number of minorities with conservative views who are hired and can advance on Capitol Hill.
Insight, a non-profit, will sponsor an internship program, hold career development events, offer chances for networking, and hold policy discussions on issues affecting minorities,
Politico reports. Next month, the first forum will be held — a discussion of post-prison re-entry programs led by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
Former Rep. J.C. Watts is chairman of the group. The four-term African American congressman from Oklahoma chaired the Republican Conference and runs his own consulting business.
Part of the impetus for the group is that the GOP must do more than attract minority candidates to become more inclusive.
“It’s really not a matter of having African-American or Hispanic or Asian or Native American candidates or female candidates,” Watts told Politico. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to connect the dots.”
Assessing Republicans’ beat-down by Democrats among minorities last November, Watts said, “You’re probably going to always have that challenge until you get people that look like me in the trenches.”
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