Civil rights attorney Leo Terrell, a frequent Fox News guest who has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump in the past, announced on “Hannity” last week that he would be voting Republican for the first time ever in the 2020 presidential election.
The news caught the attention of the Trump campaign, which made sure to tweet out Terrell’s announcement and give him a warm welcome:
Terrell, who has been outspoken in the past against Trump, is now affectionately referred to as “Leo 2.0” by Larry Elder, a conservative radio host who often appears with Terrell on “Hannity.”
In recent weeks, Terrell has sparred with left-wing activist Cornel West and argued that the Democratic Party has “been hijacked by the extremists.” In early July, Terrell published a commentary piece in Newsweek scorching Black Lives Matter.
His transition to supporting Trump reached the tipping point Thursday, as he announced, “This will be the first time in my life, Sean Hannity viewers, that I will be voting Republican.”
When Hannity and Elder tried to take credit for Terrell’s conversion, the African-American attorney explained that “The Democratic Party left me.”
Terrell elaborated further in a tweet, saying that he “did not sign up for their socialist agenda.”
Toward the end of the segment, Terrell told Hannity: “If you didn’t hear it, I’m voting for Trump.” Elder remarked that “if we can convert Leo, we can convert anybody. If we can get Leo, we can get anybody.”
Terrell is hardly the first prominent African-American to make headlines by proclaiming support for Trump.
In April, Democratic Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones announced that he would support the president’s re-election bid.
Jones’ announcement caused him to face enormous backlash and initially caused him to resign. However, the Georgia lawmaker walked back that decision, citing a desire to hold the Democrats “accountable for how they are treating black people.”
Terrell has received similar backlash for his criticism of current Democratic positions and the Black Lives Matter movement.
In an interview Wednesday with The Daily Caller, he explained that he had been “shunned” by his erstwhile colleagues: “They don’t talk to me, they don’t text me anymore.”
In an age where Democrats, led former Vice President Joe Biden, believe that African-Americans who dare to support Trump and the Republicans “ain’t black,” Terrell deserves a lot of credit for standing up to the party.
Based on the numbers, it looks like many other African-Americans may have made the decision to “walk away” from the Democratic Party.
Polls taken within the past year have put the president’s approval among African-Americans at more than 30 percent.
Keep in mind that Trump only won 8 percent of the black vote in 2016. The Democrats’ rapid lurch to the left does not appear to have helped their standing with African-Americans, an important part of their electoral coalition.
As the entertainer Kanye West explained after making his late entry into the 2020 presidential race, “To say that the black vote is Democratic is a form of racism.”
For years, the Democrats have taken the African-American vote for granted.
In 2020, the decision of African-American Democrats like Leo Terrell to support Trump could signal that the Democratic Party’s lock on the black vote has finally come to an end.
If that’s the case, the Democratic Party could very well experience its worst electoral nightmare.
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