The new face of the GOP: Michael Steele

The Republican Party on Friday selected former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele to be its first black chairman.

"It's time for something completely different and we are going to bring it to them," Steele said after he won the election. "This is our opportunity. I cannot do this by myself."

Steele said he accepted the job with "a great deal of humility and a sense of service" and vowed to continue the conservative principles of the party. But he also promised to take the party to "every community" in the country. "To those of you who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over," he said.

It took six ballots to decide the results before Steele, 50, defeated South Carolina Republican chairman Katon Dawson. Steele won 91 of the 165 votes in the contest, according to the New York Times, but the Washington Post reported that the vote was 91 to 77, which would mean 168 votes were cast. 

Steele also defeated another African American candidate, former Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell, a more conservative Republican who reportedly quit the race after the fourth ballot and then endorsed Steele.

Current RNC chairman Mike Duncan, who had been criticized for his membership in an all-white country club, withdrew from the race midway after several ballots. Another candidate, the controversial Tennessee party chairman Chip Saltsman, withdrew before the race after he became engulfed in a controversy over the distribution of a "Barack the Magic Negro" video.

With the election of Barack Obama last November, some Republicans worried that the party might become marginalized as a white southern party, especially since Obama won almost all the black vote and won 2-1 among Hispanics. The election of Steele may open doors for Republicans hoping to compete for minority voters and it may soften the party's image for white moderates.

The GOP vote comes just weeks after the country celebrated the inauguration of its first black president and 20 years after the Democrats elected an African American, Ron Brown, to lead their party.

Before his election, Steele had served as chairman of GOPAC and worked as a partner at the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf. As lieutenant governor of Maryland, Steele was the highest-ranking elected African American Republican in the United States. In 2006, Steele ran unsuccessfully for a United States Senate seat in Maryland, losing to Democratic Congressman Ben Cardin.

Steele earned a bachelor's degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He also studied at the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University to become a priest but ultimately decided on politics instead.

Steele will become the 61st chairman of the Republican National Committee.