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The Republican National Committee recently named Ashley Bell the National Committee’s new Director of African-American Political Engagement as part of its attempt to attract Black voters.

Bell spoke with Roland Martin during Tuesday’s edition of NewsOne Now about Donald Trump‘s campaign and Republican voter outreach to the African-American community.

Bell explained Republicans have a job to do in reaching out to minority voters and is glad the RNC’s Reince Priebus “is willing to invest the resources to keep trying to increase our stance with Black Americans.”

Despite the abysmal polling numbers Trump has with African-American voters, Bell said “we’re doubling down” on Black voter outreach.

Martin pressed Bell for the specifics of Trump’s policies and proposed plans to address jobs, unemployment, HBCUs, empowerment zones, and school choice, and asked, “How are you going to get Black votes when you have a candidate who refuses to go into detail about policy matters?”

Bell responded, “We at the Republican Party understand that the president can’t govern alone, there are leaders in the Congress who touch on all those issues.” 

He later added, Republicans “have to do a better job of telling our narrative” and explain what their platform is, as well as what their policy initiatives mean for the African-American community.

When asked about the plan for HBCUs Bell said, “Part of the last 90 days is working with our coordinated campaign and coming up with a plan to engage Black voters.

“We’re rolling out a plan to engage younger millennials on college campuses. You will see our collective effort to build college campuses to talk about the issues that face Historically Black Colleges.”

Martin continued to press for a specific plan on HBCUs, to which Bell responded, “Roland you know the answer to that, he doesn’t.”

The Director of African-American Political Engagement said, “Nobody is trying to make excuses for the lack of specific policies as it relates to African-Americans.

“We’re campaigning as the Republican Party, we’re campaigning as the party of opportunity, the party of big ideas, good ideas for Black America.

“What we have to do is make sure our message reaches everybody.”

Martin explained to Bell why Trump’s strategy of offering little-to-no specifics would not garner him Black votes. The host of NewsOne Now said, “The person leading your ticket has no plan, has no plan of action, has no agenda, has no specifics – you’re not going to get Black votes.”

Bell then told Martin, “Our job is to continue to compete, we’re not going to concede this election to Democrats and a lot of folks would like us to pack up and go home – we’re not. We’re going to keep fighting, we’re going to keep talking about the policies that the Republican Party has been for and remain for, before and after this election.

“It doesn’t end November 9th,” said Bell.

“The fight to make sure this country has two options, that Black America has two parties that are fighting for their vote doesn’t stop on November 8th. Everything we’re doing now is to institutionalize the Republican Party.”

Watch Roland Martin and Ashley Bell discuss the Trump campaign and African-American voter outreach in the video clip above.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

Watch NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

SEE ALSO:

GOP Hires New Black Staff To Attract African-American Voters

RNC Grilled About Flawed Plan To Woo Black Voters  was originally published on newsone.com