In 2013, after Mitt Romney lost the presidential election to Barack Obama, the Republican party released a 100-page autopsy of the election which said it has to make major strides to “campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian, and gay Americans and demonstrate we care about them, too.” This call wasn’t just to broaden the GOP’s appeal but to fight its way out of the demographic corner it painted itself into. As America becomes more diverse, failing to appeal to minority voters could be a the death nail in the party’s coffin.
But Republican attempts to be more than the white people’s party in 2016 were crushed after after making Donald Trump its presumptive nominee. In fact, polls show that 76 percent of Hispanics and 94 percent of African-Americans plan to vote for Hillary Clinton. And with Asian-Americans, Clinton holds a 62 to 19-percent favorability rating over Trump. So when Speaker of the House Paul Ryan posted a selfie with over 100 of the GOP’s 2016 Capitol Hill interns on his Instagram page last Saturday, it was emblematic of just how poorly the party has done with attracting non-white supporters.
“I think this sets a record for the most number of #CapitolHill interns in a single selfie,” Ryan wrote on his post. But Twitter user @MatthewACherry nailed it when he said the photo is the “least diverse selfie in history.” And it begs an important question: are there virtually no minorities in this photo because of the GOP’s demographic issues or because minorities do not have access to these important positions in Washington, D.C.? While Ryan has yet to comment on his selfie, it has inspired some great responses under #InternsSoWhite.
