Hillsborough's new Republican Party head on the GOP's image and reaching out to minority voters

Dana Galen was recently named the new head of the executive committee of the Hillsborough County Republican Party. She is also the first black woman to head the local party.

Galen, who lives in Wimauma, came to politics late in life, having performed as a jazz musician in Los Angeles for more than 30 years. WUSF's Steve Newborn asks her about the image of the party in the minds of many African-Americans — and her plans for increasing membership in the local party.

Tell me a little about yourself how you got involved in politics. And you started out as a musician?

GALEN: I came from a musical family, my parents were both jazz musicians. So I followed in their footsteps. And I lived in Los Angeles for 32 years, and performed and toured and so forth and had a pretty successful career. And then, at one point, though, I just wanted to settle down, I didn't want to tour anymore. So I decided that I just wanted to work in music on the weekends. And I became a paralegal during the week, which is the other side of my brain, which I really loved using. So I became a paralegal and I worked in criminal law firms for eight years, and then I worked in real estate law.

So you kind of came to politics late.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I became a Republican, I registered as a Republican in 1996. So that's my story.

Tell me what your plans are for the county party and increasing its membership? Do you have any plans right now for that?

Oh, most definitely, we found that it was very important for us to increase membership. And especially in the younger demographic, we have been very fortunate, because from December to now, we have brought in and sworn in 55 new members. That's a real big feat. And we really will have a lot of great members who are very active and very excited, you know, about working and building us up in the city election and in the future.

But my team saw a real need in the area of organization. And in the area of outreach, and messaging. When I joined the RTC, which was in 2021. I soon after became the chair of the messaging committee, and the chair of the minority outreach committee. So with those background committees, I really got to understand the importance of reaching out to all minority communities. We have already started that with the Vietnamese community, the Black community, and of course, the Spanish community. And there are some other pockets about two additional pockets of communities that we will be reaching out to also.

You’re one of only two black Republican county chairpersons in the state. Why do you think Republicans have had difficulties reaching out to African Americans in particular, who have historically voted Democratic?

I find it very interesting when people ask me such a question that you have, because the inception of the Republican Party was based upon Abe Lincoln, he was the first president with the beginning of the Republican Party. And the purpose was to stop slavery, a lot of people don't realize that. And so the Republican Party has always been very friendly, and very concerned about Black people and about minorities. But we will be doing a lot more outreach, we will be changing some minds, we will be reaching out to those communities. The younger demographic is who we are really going to be reaching out to a great deal.

The Republican Party for the past several years has had a wing that has been associated with white nationalism, Christian nationalism, as well. So how do you talk to young Black people, for instance, and they think Republicans are kind of all Trump people?

I think that in the media, there's been a lot of name-calling and everyone has been very down on Trump, but actually, the Black community did much, much better under Trump's policy. And that's what's important. I'm the type of person who I really don't like to label people. But I think it's also very important to recognize that people are complicated, OK? And Trump's policies were very advantageous to the Black community, Hispanic community, to the youth. And I don't have to really lean on Trump to even talk about this because throughout the years, the Republican Party has been very, very friendly and very, very helpful to Black people. And we have not practiced that soft bigotry of low expectation.

And that is very, very important to me that people are not constantly told that they are lesser than and that they need help. In America, if you work hard, you get your education, which is terribly lacking in schools today. And then have to be a college education. Just get a good education, get hold on your life, feel encouraged, and get out there and work hard, you will make something of yourself. And that's the American dream. That is what our goal is, our goal is to make sure that Blacks and minorities understand what the American dream is, and that they can attain what they want to attain, but not by being a victim to them, and not by needing help, because we don't need help. It's as simple as that.

We need good education, we need people who are going to encourage us and tell us that we can succeed. We don't need a welfare check, because all of those things are crutches. And I think it is very unfortunate that the other side has made Black people believe that they're lesser than, and that they can't succeed on their own. And that is very detrimental. It has very much harmed the Black community.

I'd like to ask you how your directorship would differ from that of your predecessor, Jim Waurishuk, who was known for some inflammatory statements.

You know, we're about business. So we're about getting things done, we're not about being inflammatory, or making the news and all that our goals are to encourage our membership to get out there and knock on doors and get out there and get involved in our committee that we have set up. But our goals are to encourage, we will grow for all the right reasons, I've never been one to speak off the cuff or speak out of anger, and you can say the same thing about my team. We have worked very hard to get to where we are. Now fortunately, my entire slate was voted in. We've worked hard to be very measured, and very consistent in our messaging, and very thoughtful.

Anything else you'd like to mention?

I really want to mention that people need to give the Republican Party and the conservative view, a serious consideration. Because what something that that I've also found is that once we have taken religion or Christianity or God out of school and out of our lives, we are winding up in a world that is increasingly violent, and increasingly in need of prayer and in need of people who are educated and people who do not feel that they have to prove anything to anyone that they only need to be encouraged and shown, you know, a better way. So that is what our team is really working on is getting the youth involved in very constructive lifestyle and taking on that mantle because we're going to be on this earth for you know, for a long time. And I think that it's very important to have people who care about themselves and their family and others and serve their community and their country.