Romney’s Campaign Acknowledges Attracting Black Voters is a Long Shot

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will tell black voters Wednesday that backing him over the Democratic incumbent, who won their overwhelming support in 2008, is in the best interest of their families.

By Jorge Rivas Jul 11, 2012

Mitt Romney will address the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization on Wednesday. Let’s hope it goes better than the interaction he had with the group of black folks in the video above. Romney is expected to tell the NAACP audience they’ll want to vote for him when they see what’s ‘in my heart.’ "I believe that if you understood who I truly am in my heart, and if it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real, enduring best interest of African American families, you would vote for me for president," Romney will say, according to his campaign. "I want you to know that if I did not believe that my policies and my leadership would help families of color — and families of any color — more than the policies and leadership of President Obama, I would not be running for president." "If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone," Romney says. "Instead, it’s worse for African Americans in almost every way." In 2008, Obama captured 95% of the black vote, compared to to 4% for Sen. John McCain. A recent [Gallup tracking poll ](http://www.gallup.com/poll/154577/Election-2012-Weekly-Demographic-Data.aspx)showed just 5% of blacks supporting Romney, compared with 87% for the president. Romney’s campaign acknowledges that attracting more black voters is a long shot.