Men of steel

Politics: For black Republicans running for office in these times, it’s no cakewalk. WORLD spends a day in the life of candidates Michael Steele and Ken Blackwell | Clint Rainey

Michael S. Steele, the lieutenant governor of Maryland and a U.S. Senate candidate, loves tea parties. Or so he says. "Spots" of tea, scones, the whole bit. But a tearoom is about the last place you'd expect to find Steele, a 6-foot-4 African-American who grew up in Washington's rough Petworth area—about as improbable as the fact that this man is running as a Republican.

Nonetheless, at 11:45 a.m. on July 22, Steele stood sipping tea at a small strip-mall café in Prince George's County, at an event organized by a group that calls itself the Women of Steele. Decked in baby blue T-shirts everywhere they go, these women were the lieutenant governor's first grassroots group and now number in the 500s. Steele calls them a "phenomenon." At least two-thirds are Democrats—in step with the state's political makeup, but strange because, after all, the candidate is, as he will remind everyone at the café, "a proud Republican." Steele is one of two prominent African-American candidates running for key election posts this year and quietly toiling to extend the GOP's reach into a Democratic domain.