Story highlights Perry used a half-hour speech at the National Press Club in Washington to try and recast blacks' concerns as going beyond race.

It was a new message for the presidential candidate, who has not extensively addressed racial issues in his high-profile speeches on the campaign trail.

Washington (CNN) Rick Perry on Thursday said the Republican Party lost some of its "moral legitimacy" by not vying for the black vote in past elections, adding that the GOP has "much to do" to earn the trust of African-Americans.

Perry, the former Texas governor and 2016 presidential hopeful, used a half-hour speech at the National Press Club in Washington to try and recast blacks' concerns as going beyond race, pitching his much-touted jobs record in Austin as the most enticing message to woo skeptical black voters.

"I am here to tell you that it is Republicans, not Democrats, who are truly offering black Americans the hope of a better life for themselves and their children," Perry told the audience, which was a nearly all-white room of journalists, lobbyists and politicians.

He later conceded: "I know Republicans have much to do to earn the trust of African-Americans."

It was a new message for the presidential candidate, who has not extensively addressed racial issues in his high-profile speeches on the campaign trail. And it remains to be seen whether Perry will continue to eye the black vote in early-voting states where African-Americans will make up a very small percentage of the electorate.

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