Republicans have long been branded the party of the rich, and in the past have struggled to communicate their views on poverty and solutions to fix it. During his 2012 vice presidential run, now-House Speaker Paul Ryan wanted to focus some of his outreach efforts in inner cities. The campaign initially resisted, but ultimately acquiesced.

Nearly four years later, Ryan has had the opportunity to inject the issue into the 2016 presidential election. Last weekend, Ryan, along with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), moderated the Kemp Forum on Expanding Opportunity, featuring a large cross section of the GOP field to discuss poverty and solutions for tackling it.