PINEHURST — Nationally-renowned conservative author Deroy Murdock will be in Moore County this weekend to speak at the Moore County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner. A Fox News contributor and prolific writer, Murdock’s weekly columns appear in the New York Post and the Washington Times. A native of Los Angeles, he worked on the 1980 and 1984 presidential campaigns for Ronald Reagan has lectured at the Cato Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Heritage Foundation.
He spoke with North State Journal ahead of his visit to the Sandhills about the 2022 midterms and the current state of politics.
He said to win the midterms in November, Republicans need to ask voters the famous question, ‘are you better off now than you were two years ago?’
“I think most people will look back at where they were in November of 2020. We had a growing economy. We had energy independence. Now, a shrinking economy, highest inflation this country’s seen since 1982” said Murdock. “It is absolutely crucial that all Republicans and conservatives work tirelessly between now and the November election, make the phone calls, write the knock on the doors, tell your friends, register voters. Everyone on the right needs to be working as if our country’s future is at stake.”
“We had the lowest black unemployment in American history, lowest Hispanic unemployment in American history, the lowest unemployment for Americans of Asian background in American history. The lowest female unemployment, I believe since 1953, under Dwight D Eisenhower. The lowest poverty level for blacks ever. The first time in American history that black poverty fell below 20%. It was at about 18%,” continued Murdock.
Murdock said the Republican plan should be “to get us back to prosperity back to safety, back to border security, back to peace through strength,” and making clear contrasts to where the nation is now.
He also touched on education issues, saying one of the very few good things that came out of COVID-19 was parents seeing what happened as their children were engaged in remote learning.
“Parents were in the room while the kids were in Zoom school, and they suddenly discovered a lot of the teachers who they thought were teaching, reading, writing, arithmetic, were teaching them Critical Race Theory and how to hate their country, how to hate themselves, how to hate their fellow students, and how to judge people on the basis of race, gender discussion, sexual orientation discussions, all sorts of stuff,” said Murdock. “A lot of parents freaked out and started confronting school boards saying, ‘what on earth are you doing?’ This is what the left is offering.”
Murdock, who is black, also addressed how Republicans can continue to gain the votes of minorities. From 2016 to 2020, the vote share from minorities increased for Republicans, much of which has been attributed to Trump. Murdock said the first thing is simple to “ask politely.”
“I’ve had this conversation for decades with Republicans saying, look, you need to reach out to the community, reach out to Hispanic community, and particularly when comes to the black community. If the Republican party and Republican candidates and conservatives win even 20% of the black vote, they (Democrats) are finished. They’re going to go the way of the Dodo bird and the Whigs and the Know-Nothing Party because the Democratic Party can’t afford to lose that large chunk of its base. I hope that happens in my lifetime,” Murdock says.
Murdock says specific issues such as school choice interests black parents who want better education for their kids. He said Trump, when he ran in both presidential elections, would make that case. He said Trump would do things like visit black churches and black charter schools and pointed to policies such as Opportunity Zones to bring billions in private investment to inner cities.
“The way for Republicans and conservatives to win those 20% or more, which would be better, is to go to black churches, go to black union halls, go to black businesses, knock on doors of black neighborhoods, go to black civic organizations and make the case and explain why basic Republican and conservative concepts of individual freedom, personal responsibility, limited government, free enterprise and peace through strength, make sense and lead to prosperity not just for white people, but for black people too,” he added.
Murdock said that Republicans can’t take the favorable environment for granted and said he makes the point regularly that Republicans need to work hard until November. “I think there’s a danger of people taking this victory for granted and assuming it’s baked to the cake and therefore not doing the hard work it takes to win.”
He said message is one he will bring this weekend when he speaks. The dinner will be held on Sunday, May 15 at 6 p.m. at the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst.
