June 02, 2013 08:21 AM UTC

CO Republican Party responds to criticism from Black Tea Party leader

• 6 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

I blogged Friday about complaints from an African-American radio host, who's also a leader of the Black Tea Party, that Colorado Republican Chair Ryan Call isn't properly supporting grassroots organizing efforts to diversify the state GOP.

The Colorado GOP responded Saturday to that criticism, which was aired by Derrick Wilburn, founder of the Rocky Mountain Black Tea Party, on his KZNT radio show last Saturday.

Colorado GOP Communications Director Owen Loftus told the Daily Caller's Greg Campbell:

“As chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Ryan receives many invitations to attend and speak at events and meetings across the state, and he does attend as many as possible,” he wrote in an email. “As Mr. Wilburn stated, Ryan has even met with the Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives.”

“Chairman Priebus was in town to discuss Hispanic outreach,” he continued. “The vast majority of people at the meeting were members of the Hispanic community. We were happy to have Mr. Wilburn there to share his thoughts. Unfortunately, given Chairman Preibus’s tight schedule, no one was able to speak at length, not even elected officials like Rep. Clarice Navarro.”

Ryan Call even met with Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives!

But what else has he done? I don't think the Colorado GOP has sufficiently responded to the gist of Wilburn's complaint that the state party isn't showing enough love to African Americans, young people, Hispanics, etc. What's happening, beyond talk, to diversify the party? This is a story that needs to be told.