For the first time in recent history, New Jersey has two black Republicans running for Congress.

They represent a growing shift of black voters away from the Democratic Party toward the GOP.

NJ Spotlight News is closely following their races and recently partnered with Atlantic City Focus to dig deeper into why black voters are changing their votes.

The story ran as part of the NJ Decides 2024 Reporting Fellowship, organized by the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University.

Joining us now to talk about the article is its coauthor, Mark Tyler, who's the founder and publisher of Atlantic City Focus.

Mark, so great to have you with us tonight.

You recently wrote an article with our health care writer Lelo Stanton, looking at how black voters in New Jersey are shifting over to the Republican Party.

What did you find as you looked into this issue is really behind that shift?

Well, what I found really being behind this shift is there are some black New Jerseyans who have a disillusionment with the Democratic Party and they are dissatisfied with the amount of progress that has been made since it's going back as far as the 1960s.

And so they are saying, is it time to give something else a chance?

Yeah, it's interesting.

You included some history in the article, which I really enjoyed reading, how black voters really originally started with the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln, and then over time have shifted over where right now we see about eight out of ten black voters vote Democratic.

Is the Democratic Party doing enough right now to engage this population of voters?

We saw Andrew Parker, the third in Atlantic County commissioner, saying that Democrats have really had that, that they've enjoyed the blind loyalty of the black vote.

And now that could be shifting.

Are they doing enough?

I don't know that anyone is doing enough.

Quite honestly, I don't know that the Republican Party is doing enough.

I don't know that the Democratic Party is doing enough.

But the sentiment out in the field is that it's time to take a look.

And some people have taken a look and said, hey, this more aligns with my personal values.

And so they've gone that way and others have like Billy Frank, but they had a preconceived notion and they haven't really begun to do that self-examination yet.

Yeah, Billy Prempeh has said he's running in the ninth District against Nelly Poe, four for the congressional seat that was once held by Congressman Bill Pascrell.

He said, really that the Republican Party more aligned with his idea of self-improvement, personal responsibility, and that on the other side are social programs that have kept people dependent on the government.

I have to ask you, are those two things mutually exclusive also?

In other words, do you need to break away from social programs to take on that personal responsibility?

Is that a message that can resonate among voters?

I don't know that it is.

I think there is room for both because, I mean, let's be honest, If you look at the state of New Jersey with the housing and the cost of living and all of these various things, something needs to be propped up somewhere.

I mean, you guys are in Newark, right?

We are.

You can't get a one bedroom apartment for under $2,000 a month.

Now, if debt doesn't cause for all for some type of subsidy somewhere, I don't know what does.

However, do you say, okay, do all subsidy?

No, you don't necessarily need to do all subsidy, but you also need to create better opportunities for entrepreneurs and others to actually generate a living wage so that they can pay $202,000 per month rent and maybe $3,000 or a 200 to $3000 a month mortgage.

Yeah.

Are these issues that you're hearing on the campaign trail addressed enough in just a few seconds that we have left?

They've got to talk about housing.

They've got to talk about opportunity.

Those are two things that I think someone always said.

When would you.

Mark Tyler, founder and publisher of Atlantic City Focus, we appreciate you being on with us today.

Thank you.