Posted on 11/03/2010 11:07:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Republican wave produced groundbreaking results for minority candidates, from Latina and Indian-American governors to a pair of black congressmen from the Deep South.
In New Mexico, Susana Martinez was elected as the nation's first female Hispanic governor. Nikki Haley, whose parents were born in India, will be the first woman governor in South Carolina, and Brian Sandoval became Nevada's first Hispanic governor.
Insurance company owner Tim Scott will be the first black Republican congressman from South Carolina since Reconstruction, after easily winning in his conservative district. Scott, a 45-year-old state representative, earned a primary victory over the son of the one-time segregationist U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond.
In Florida, veteran Allen West ousted a two-term Democrat to a House seat. He is the first black Republican elected to Congress from Florida since a former slave served two terms in the 1870s.
The last black Republican in Congress was J.C. Watts of Oklahoma. He left office in 2003. There were 42 black Democrats in Congress this term.
Several Latino Republicans defeated incumbent House Democrats. In Texas, Bill Flores snatched a seat from Rep. Chet Edwards, who had served 20 years in Congress, and Francisco Canseco beat Rep. Ciro Rodriguez. Jamie Herrera became the first Latino congressman from Washington state.
Opposition to President Barack Obama's agenda fueled Tuesday's GOP surge, and many also connected Obama to the rise of minority GOP candidates.
"Color is becoming less of an issue," said Richard Ivory, a black Republican political consultant and founder of hiphoprepublican.com. "There was a time when the white electorate saw race first and made judgments based on this alone. While black Republicans and Obama disagree ideologically, both are candidates whose message surpassed pigment."
Mark Sawyer, a UCLA professor and director of the university's Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics, said Obama's election pushed the GOP to adjust to a more diverse electorate by seeking out minority candidates.
(Let's not forget the new rising star -- Marco Rubio).
Stop counting the damn color! Its whats in their head thAt matters!
Hey Progressives, progress past 1960 already.
I was thinking about this very thing last night. I wish the GOP would do something smart for once and get a group photo of all of the ethnic winners and tout them.
It would lay waste to the myth of racism in the GOP.
Also, did y'all notice the military winners, too?
It was all those racist Tea party people... /sarc
Congratulations to West and Scott, true Patriots both.
It is clear that the Republican party is the party of the people, inclusive to all who share the simple values of smaller government, lower taxes, secure borders, and individual responsibility. The Democratic party, by contrast, is the party of special interests and racial-identity politics, neither of which is good for the country.
Perhaps, African Americans will now see this more clearly and choose to go with the party that will truly benefit them as a group and as individuals instead of continuing to support the party that has done everything to keep them economically dependent on government for decades.
I wonder if Scott and West will be invited to join the House Black Caucus? I wonder if either would accept?
Fah!
Um, NO! obama's race-baiting socialist agenda pushed some conservative minority candidates to stand up and be counted, as with the rest of the Tea Party tsunami!
RE: Maybe I’m too sensitive, but I see this article as condescending. It gives these fine candidates very little credit for their own victories
You have a knack for sensing a liberal even when he does not identify himself as such. SALON (where this article was taken) is a liberal website.
They’re saying these great men wouldn’t have made it in the “racist” Republican party otherwise! As usual, their words prove where the true racists sit!
No no no ... EVERYBODY knows that Republicans are racist!/sarc
the history of this country is that it was a REBPUBLICAN who defeated slavery and it was REPUBLICANS who passed the civil rights bill and it was DEMOCRATS that formed the KKK and enforced segregation...
Blacks belong in the Republican party....
RE: I wonder if Scott and West will be invited to join the House Black Caucus? I wonder if either would accept?
I have always wondered why they need a Black Caucus....
A Caucus, by definition, is a closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on policy ( See Webster Dictionary)...
Notice the definition:
1) It is closed
2) It belongs to the same political party or faction
3) It’s purpose is to decide on policy.
What kind of policy are they going to decide on? Affirmative Action? More Spending? More Handouts? More Socialized Medicine?
If you’re a Conservative, you already don’t qualify for the caucus based on the above definition.
Men of Principle will not even bother to join.
Would that be President Rubio?
Do you remember a few years ago when Justice Clarence Thomas had been scheduled to address a high school graduation class in a mainly black VA or DC suburb - and the (black Dem) school board cancelled him because he wasn’t “suitable for black students”?
It was enough to make you sick to your stomach. Clarence Thomas was the impoverished child of a dysfunctional single mother, brought up in the South during segregation by his grandparents (his grandfather was a very strict self-made man who sold heating oil in the black neighborhoods and made his grandson get up at 4:00 am to load up the truck with him), whipped into shape by the nuns at his Catholic school who made him study and compete because they knew how smart he was, and went on to bcome a complete success story.
But I guess that doesn’t count. You’re only really black if the Democrat party says you are.
The ultimate blow to leftist madness would be for this country to have a Black woman REPUBLICAN president!
The leftists would melt into a pool of steaming mud.
Once we start counting how many Black ones, how many brown ones, how many White ones, etc....we’re no better than them.
RE: The ultimate blow to leftist madness would be for this country to have a Black woman REPUBLICAN president!
A lot of people were coaxing Condoleeza Rice to run but she just was not interested. I don’t see anyone else on the horizon who meet the above criteria.
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