A Black activist who in 2016 election urged Black people not to vote unless they supported then-Republican candidate Donald Trump, this week parked his large campaign bus by the Exxon station at FM 306 and Purgatory Road, where he’s asking everyone to vote against incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.
The man behind the wheel of the bus is Dallas-area resident Bruce Carter, the founder of Black Men for Bernie who controversially shifted his allegiance to Trump in 2016 and created Trump for Urban Communities.
Emblazoned on wrap around the bus is the slogan “Joe Gotta Go Tour/ Why You Shouldn’t Vote for Him If You Are Black.”
Carter now calls himself a conservative and said he has greeted hundreds of people in Canyon Lake who’ve pulled over to talk politics and purchase merchandise like T-shirts and baseball hats.
Not many of those are Black people.
Carter drove into town earlier this week at the suggestion of a Canyon Lake resident he met in Fort Worth.
He declined to name the person but said he plans to stay in the area through Saturday and, at a later date, lead a convoy of cars north on I-35, through Central Texas.
Times and dates of all future events will be posted on his website, joegottagotour.com. Carter said he knows about the New Braunfels Trump Train, which swarmed a Biden campaign bus driving from San Antonio to Austin in 2019 but did not elaborate.
Carter describes his political position these days as “conservative” and said most of those swinging by the Exxon station also define themselves as conservatives who do not necessarily support Trump or who have yet to decide which of the new crop of Republican candidates they would pick.
In the past, he said these conservatives might have considered themselves part of the “silent majority,” middle-ground voters who are not politically active yet feel their voices are not heard.
“We do two things,” said Carter, who calls himself ‘America’s senator.’ “We travel the country, and we connect with conservatives, not Republicans.”
One of those people is South Carolina resident Jill Wilder Martinez, a lifelong Republican who is visiting friends in Canyon Lake and pulled up in her RV to meet Carter today.
She said she might vote for Biden if he was good for the country. Instead, he’s “doing a lot of harm.”
Her 401K retirement fund has decreased by tens of thousands of dollars under the Biden administration.
Carter said he also wants to reach Black “sistas,” especially those with children and has another ongoing campaign called “Sistas Learning About Conservatives (SLAC).”
Black women should become more engaged in the political system to combat crime, build better educational systems and seek new opportunities according to his website.
Speaking today, he said he is concerned about the “Black family nucleus,” which he said Biden does not value.
“…It’s the entire concept of what Democrats (are) and how they have treated the black community, you know,” he said. “I wish we didn’t operate in color. I just wish we operated as Americans because that is how we do it. When Joe says that if you consider voting for Trump in 2020 and not me, you’re not Black.”
Biden deserves no credit for appointing Black women like Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and presidential spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre to power because Harris and Brown Jackson are married to white men or, in Jean-Pierre’s case, had a white partner, he said.
On his website, Carter Biden a “pimp” who touted these appointees as historic because their “most trusted person has Joe’s skin color.”
“…You have to at some point show what a family nucleus looks like,” he said in an interview today. “So if you tell Black women that you’re going to get these Black women once again, you shouldn’t say that. Anyway, you should pick the person who’s best for the job, but because you’re pandering for that support you’re using, you’re utilizing Black women. So Black women are running behind it. But are they connected to this race?”
Carter said that of all the presidential candidates that have participated in the debates, he likes former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
“And as I travel this country and I talk to SLAC, you know, they think it’s going to take a woman to fix this,” he said. “So I could see a lot of these ‘sistas’ voting for Nikki Haley.
“It’s so early, you know, maybe the Iowa caucus will change something. Maybe a couple of more people will fall out of the race and you’re able to see what’s real…But if you had to, if you went by the debates, I think hands down she’s been the best candidate so far.”
Meanwhile, visitors to his website are asked to donate to “the wall” and tell us “which Joe Gotta Go — Racist Joe, Lying Joe, Inflation Joe, China Joe, I Don’t Know Joe.”
An employee at the Exxon/7-Eleven store said Carter’s bus is parked on land owned by the Texas Department of Transportation.
