Another week, another missed opportunity for Republican presidential candidates to address diverse audiences. This week the major Republican presidential candidates cited 'scheduling conflicts' to avoid standing before the National Urban League's Annual Conference in St. Louis and to avoid the National Council of La Raza's Annual Conference in Miami Beach. Only "long shot" candidate Mike Huckabee, the former Governor of Arkansas, and Rep. Duncan Hunter will represent the Republican Party in St. Louis, while as a group in recent weeks the GOP candidates have ignored major organizations that represent important communities, including America's teachers, young people, African Americans and Hispanics. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 7/25/07; AFP, 7/23/07; BET.com, 7/26/07; Bloomberg, 7/26/07]

Almost every Republican running for President has ducked major conferences of the NAACP, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), the National Education Association (NEA), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the Young Republicans National Convention, and even the College Republican Convention. In each of these cases, just one or two of the 10 Republican candidates accepted invitations to address these organizations and their members.

By contrast, not only is the field of Democratic presidential candidates the strongest and most diverse in history, as a group they have accepted the opportunity to address Americans of all backgrounds. All eight Democratic candidates accepted invitations to address the NAACP convention, seven addressed the NALEO convention, seven addressed the NEA, five are addressing the College Democrats of America convention this weekend, and four are addressing the National Urban League.

"It's hard to blame Republican presidential candidates for shying away from defending their President's and their Party's abysmal record with young people and minorities," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda. "But the Republicans' snubs say as much about the future as they do about the past of the Republican Party. If the Republicans' top candidates believe they can say 'no' to entire groups of Americans, then they'll find those Americans saying 'no' to them too."

Republicans Just Say No... To Hispanics, African Americans, Teachers and Young People

• Only One Republican Candidate to Address NAACP. The NAACP is holding its annual convention Thursday morning in Detroit. Though all Republican candidates were invited over two months ago, only Tancredo might attend. Giuliani, Romney, McCain and Huckabee all cited scheduling conflicts. Giuliani will be in Michigan that day, and Romney has no public events scheduled. All eight Democratic presidential candidates have accepted invitations to speak. [Detroit Free Press, 7/10/07]
• Only One Republican Addressed NALEO. "The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials invited all Republican presidential hopefuls to its annual convention at Disney World at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Only one showed up - Rep. Duncan Hunter, of California... On Saturday, seven Democratic presidential candidates were slated to attend a forum at the NALEO conference, including Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Joseph Biden of Delaware, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio." [Austin American-Statesman blog, 6/29/07]
• Only One Republican Candidate Addressed National Education Association. "Arkansas Republican [Mike Huckabee], the only GOP candidate for president who accepted the National Education Association's invitation to speak at its first presidential forum...The other GOP candidates, however, chose not to pitch to the 3.2 million-member NEA -- a foolish snub, union leaders said, given that the group's membership is about one-third Republican." [Boston Globe, 7/12/07]
• Only One Republican Candidate Scheduled to Address College Republicans. The College Republicans will hold their 57th Biennial National Convention at the Sheraton in Arlington, VA this week. Brownback is the only candidate slated to appear. [crnc.org]
• Only Two Republican Candidates Addressed Young Republicans National Convention. Of the declared GOP Presidential contenders, just Mitt Romney and Duncan Hunter addressed the 2007 Young Republicans National Convention in South Florida. [Sun-Sentinel, 7/5/07] Rudy Giuliani declined to address the convention despite campaigning throughout Florida the same day. [Campaigns & Elections, 7/3/07]
• Top Republicans Skip NCLR and National Urban League Conferences, Cite "Scheduling Conflicts". According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, besides Huckabee and Hunter, the "other Republicans have said they couldn't come because of scheduling conflicts" to the National Urban League Conference. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 7/25/07] That followed NCLR's annual conference earlier in the week, for which "Republican presidential hopefuls Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain, turned down invitations" also "citing scheduling conflicts. Organizers say that was a major miscalculation, particularly since the Republicans also stayed away from other important Latino conferences in recent weeks." [AFP, 7/23/07]