RNC hires strategists to help woo African-American voters

The Republican National Committee is trying to strengthen its outreach to black voters by hiring a new national director of African-American engagement and bringing on new advisers and strategists to bolster its efforts to bring in more minority voters.

Ashley Bell, who was one of the 18 black delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, started this week as an RNC senior strategist and national director of African-American engagement.

He will be joined by Elroy Sailor and Shannon Reeves.

Sailor, who used to work for Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, said he will serve in an advisory capacity to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus while Reeves, a political science professor at Alabama A&M University, will work with the party on creating a database of black voters.

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