TV journalist and radio host Dominic Carter brought an impassioned message to the New York State Conservative Party’s annual conference in Albany, blending personal history with sharp political critique. Carter, a longtime political commentator for Verizon FiOS-RNN-TV and host on WABC Radio, has moderated national debates featuring figures like Hillary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.
Speaking at the start of Black History Month, Carter framed the celebration as “collective… for everyone,” then turned quickly to his identity as a Black conservative.
“Instinctively in the black community… you’re taught you’re supposed to be a Democrat,” he said. “You’re taught you’re supposed to be anti-police… These are things that are so false.”
Carter argued that Democrats have taken Black voters for granted. “You got to wake up and get off of that Democratic plantation, because they’re not there for you,” he declared. “All they do is using you.”
He described being called “an Uncle Tom” or “a sellout” for expressing conservative beliefs, but insisted his views come from lived experience. Raised in poverty in New York City housing projects, Carter said conservatives proved “it does not matter in life where you start out… What matters in life is where you call.”
Carter also pointed to history to challenge the assumption that the Democratic Party has always been the natural home for Black Americans.
He urged the audience to reconsider which political leaders have actually advanced Black progress. “So we started Black History Month, and I want to ask you folks this question,” he said. “We all know the president that freed the slaves, Democrat or Republican?”
He continued by referencing key Republican presidents who played major roles in honoring Black history at the national level.
“The president that started honoring Black History Month, Democrat or Republican,” Carter asked, before reminding listeners that President Gerald Ford formally recognized the observance.
Carter emphasized that it was Ronald Reagan who signed Black History Month into law. “The president that signed Black History Month into law and who was it? Reagan. Ronald Reagan.”
For Carter, those historical facts reinforced his central message that Black voters should not feel obligated to remain loyal to Democrats. “So I say again to Democrats: get off of that plantation and open your eyes.”
Carter also criticized welfare dependency and liberal crime policies, arguing that Democratic leadership has created cycles of hardship rather than opportunity. “The worst one: dependency first and welfare,” he said, claiming it “traps families cycle after cycle after cycle.”
“The Democrats will tell you it’s everybody’s fault except for the person in the mirror,” Carter added. “If you don’t succeed, look in the damn mirror. It’s not the government’s fault.”
Carter closed by warning that “failed liberal policies” have brought the nation to a breaking point. “Failed liberal policies is how we got to where we are right now as a country,” he said, urging conservatives to continue challenging what he called the Democratic Party’s long-standing grip on Black voters.
"I am a proud conservative Republican, concluded Carter in his remarks at the Albany, New York Hilton.