As the Republican National Committee’s African American State GOP Director for North Carolina, it is Phillip’s job to take the values of the Grand Old Party and package them into a message that resonates with black voters in the state.

“The Republican Party, as we all know, was brought about for blacks. President Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas are the fathers of the Republican Party, (which) is responsible for engineering, implementing and sustaining freeing the slaves,” Phillip said.

 “The main reason I’m a Republican is because the Republican Party’s platform stands for exactly what my family and I believe in, which is: No. 1, faith in God; No. 2, strong families and a strong economy; and (No. 3), equal opportunities for all.”

Phillip shared his strategy for reaching black voters Thursday at an Iredell County Republican Women’s Club meeting, which drew a crowd of 60 to Big Daddy’s of Lake Norman.

While he was careful to note that he did not intend to offend anyone, Phillips pulled no punches in outlining his reasons for being a Republican. Namely, Phillips said he could not get past the efforts of Democrats to erase God from American society.

“You cannot be a Christian and be a member of, or support, or be a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party,” Phillip said. “I don’t believe in abortion because it’s against the Bible. I do not believe in same-sex marriage; I do believe that marriage is between one born-man and one born-woman. I don’t believe that we should put God aside for the feelings of other human beings. What are you going to tell God when he comes?”

The majority of black Democrats are in fact conservative, Phillip said, as evidenced by more than 80 percent of black voters supporting the 2012 amendment that banned same-sex marriage in North Carolina.

Born in the Virgin Islands but raised in Baltimore, Phillip said he considers himself to be Caribbean-American and culturally black due to his upbringing in a high crime area. On the other hand, Phillip said President Barack Obama was African-American because his father was Kenyan, but not black because he grew up did not grow up in black neighborhood.

“I don’t fault him for that whatsoever. He’s never said he did; other folks have given that assumption for him,” Phillip said. “I’m not a fan of (Obama) because I don’t believe in his ideology, I don’t believe he’s a Christian, I don’t believe he’s a citizen. But I do believe what he wrote in his book, what he says he wants for America, and that’s the issue I have.”

Karen Carty, president of the Iredell County Republican Women’s Club, said she was please by the size and diversity of the crow that turned out to hear Phillip speak.

“We put this together because it’s commonly thought that black Americans are Democratic, and I think that many of them are not, really, if they look at their ideology and their values,” Carty said.

“It’s important because Americans should not be divided along lines of skin color. It’s all about values and ideology, and that’s why people of all colors need to hear the messages on both the left and the right and decide where they stand.”