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With South Carolina's victory of the first 'Deep South' black Republican to Congress since Reconstruction, one conservative thinks it's evident that the tea party is not racist. Ron Miller, a conservative author, columnist, veteran and tea party member, says Tim Scott's election to Congress is "an impressive victory." "I think it's a great testimony to Americans' ability to evaluate people by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin..." ----snip. In winning the election, Scott beat out....the son of late Senator Strom Thurmond and the son of former South Carolina Governor Carroll Campbell. ----snip"...they've demonstrated their...

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...

There is one African-American in the current Senate: Illinois Sen. Roland Burris, who was appointed to fill out the rest of Barack Obama's term after he was elected president... All three African-American candidates are projected to lose their races: Florida's Kendrick Meek to Marco Rubio, Georgia's Michael Thurmond to Johnny Isakson and South Carolina's Alvin Greene to Jim DeMint. (All three are Democrats.)... African-Americans are better represented in the House, where there are currently 41 black members.

After the 2006 midterm elections, many in the chattering class declared the GOP had been reduced to a “regional party” – white, male, and Southern. Since President Obama’s election in 2008, the Leftist mainstream media has worked diligently to paint much of the opposition to his policies as the bigoted and deranged spasms of a marginalized, racist conservative base. The tea party movement represented “racism, straight up” according to political philosopher Janeane Garofalo. Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, Eugene Robinson, and Bob Herbert practically took turns writing weekly columns slandering conservatives using flagrant race baiting, including an embarrassing election-day screed from...

Republican Allen West's win over incumbent U.S. Rep. Ron Klein by 7,000 votes in Broward County assured him of the win, Palm Beach County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Siegel said Tuesday night....frpa

Two black Republican victories tonight mark the first time African-Americans will represent the GOP in Congress in seven years. Retired Lt. Colonel Allen West's win in Florida's 22nd District and South Carolina State Rep. Tim Scott's victory in that state's 1st Congressional District is also the first time two black GOP members will serve in Congress since 1996. Scott defeated Democrat Ben Frasier in an open contest to replace retiring Republican Rep. Henry Brown to the first black GOP in Congress since former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts retired in 2003. West defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Ron Klein shortly after Scott's...

The Obama presidency has not led to a post-racial America, says Toby Harnden, but black Republicans in Congress could help break down barriers . Campaigning a few miles from Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861, Tim Scott described last week how he was born into poverty and a broken home, much like Barack Obama. But the conclusions that Scott, 45, drew were very different from those of Obama. When he was 15, a man who ran a Chick-fil-A fast-food restaurant taught him "that there was a way to think my way out...

As CBN News has reported, a record number of African-American Republicans are running for Congress this year. One activist who's encouraging more black voters to give Republicans a chance is Ron Miller. Miller is an Air Force veteran and executive director of Regular Folks United, an organization working to advance America's founding principles. He is also the author of Sellout: Musings from Uncle Tom's Porch. The book delves into Miller's journey into identifying himself as a conservative. In some ways, it's a history lesson as to why he says Democrats may not always have the best intentions for Black Americans....

Overall, the GOP has fielded more than 30 African-American candidates for federal office, including Ryan Frazier in Colorado's Seventh Congressional District and Vernon Parker in Arizona's Third Congressional District. And as the economy loses steam, and President Obama's poll numbers sag, the ultimate humiliation in this summer of Democratic discontent is to find Republicans trumpeting 2010 as "The Year of the Black Republicans." A trend with historic rootsThis trend defies modern identity politics. In the 2008 election, 95 percent of black voters chose Obama. Yet the attraction between blacks and the Republican Party is not so strange as it seems....

On this day in 1863, Frederick Douglass (R-MD) met with President Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) for the first time. Senator Samuel Pomeroy (R-KS) escorted Douglass to the War Department building. On arrival, Douglass urged Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to allow equal pay for African-American soldiers in the U.S. Army. Though sympathetic, Stanton said that would require congressional approval, which he supported. Next, Douglass was introduced to the president at the White House. Lincoln stood and shook his hand "just as you have seen one gentleman receive another," Douglass later recounted. "I at once felt myself in the present of an...

Conservative Black Republican Congressional Candidate Thrown Out Of Cystic Fibrosis Fundraiser Because Big Donor Dems Object FR Exclusive You would think it couldn’t happen in America but it has. Retired Army Lt. Colonel Allen West is a conservative Black Republican. He was to be honored at an upcoming Cystic Fibrosis Fundraising Dinner in Florida, but the invitation was withdrawn because of pressure from liberal Dems who also support the Foundation. Allen is running, (and running well) for the Congressional seat now held by far-left Democrat Ron Klein. The district, Florida 22, covers the east coast of Florida from Fort Lauderdale...

President Reagan's remarks at a National Black Republican Council Dinner on September 15, 1982. Click here for his GREAT speech

Voters in South Carolina nominated a black Republican lawmaker for an open congressional seat Tuesday, rejecting a legendary political name and potentially changing the face of the national party. State Rep. Tim Scott defeated Paul Thurmond, an attorney who is son of the one-time segregationist U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. Scott, who won the runoff with 69 percent of the vote, is now poised to become the nation's first black GOP congressman since 2003. Scott, 44, owns an insurance business and became the first black Republican in the South Carolina Legislature in more than a century when elected two years ago....

Republican Tim Scott earned a landslide victory against challenger Paul Thurmond in the Republican runoff in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District. The Associated Press called the race for Scott with the candidate leading Thurmond 74 percent to 26 percent. There was no question that Scott was the candidate of the party's D.C. establishment in South Carolina's 1st congressional district. It's a label that has essentially been the kiss of death for other GOP primary candidates this election cycle. But in the open seat primary to replace retiring Rep. Henry Brown (R) the party appeared thrilled to coalesce behind Scott, the...

MSNBC HOST: Lt. Col., our time is limited, but my last question to you. The Tea Party has raised concerns that it may have, I guess, racism build in it. We have seen some racist signs at past events. People have said that is not apart of the Tea Party movement, but are African-American candidates aligning themselves with the Tea Party? LT. COL. ALLEN WEST (RET.): Well, I don't think they're so much aligning themselves with the Tea Party. The principles and values I espouse: limited government, lower taxes, individual responsibility, accountability, liberty and honoring the traditions of our Constitutional...

Most Black Republicans Since Reconstruction Run for CongressBy Max Fisher on May 05, 2010 1:28pm African-American voters and the modern GOP have a complicated relationship. There hasn't been a black Republican in Congress since 2003. After President Obama won 95% of the black vote in the 2008 election, the Republican National Committee, partly in a bid to gain some African-American support, appointed black Republican Michael Steele as RNC head. Steele's tenure has been rocky, but public support for Obama has also dropped, as public frustration with the economy rises. So it's in this climate of complex racial politics that a...

Listen to the surprise in Luke Russert's voice as he reports that many African-American Republican candidates for congress are seeking support from the Tea Party. After all, says Luke, the Tea Party is a group that "a lot of folks have claimed to be racist against African-Americans." Russert expressed his amazement on MSNBC this morning, discussing a New York Times article that reports that as many as 32 black Republicans are running for Congress. View video here.

Among the many reverberations of President Obama’s election, here is one he probably never anticipated: at least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction, according to party officials. The House has not had a black Republican since 2003, when J. C. Watts of Oklahoma left after eight years. But now black Republicans are running across the country — from a largely white swath of beach communities in Florida to the suburbs of Phoenix, where an African-American candidate has raised more money than all but two of his nine (white) Republican competitors in...

The Republican Party has not given African Americans a good reason to vote for the party, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele said Tuesday night. "You really don't have a reason to, to be honest -- we haven't done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True," Steele said at DePaul University, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Steele, the first African-American chairman for the RNC, said the GOP has lost its historical link to African Americans. "This party was co-founded by blacks, among them Frederick Douglass," he said. "The Republican Party had a hand in forming the NAACP,...

Steele: No reason for black GOP base By: Andy Barr April 21, 2010 05:43 PM EDT Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele told a group of students that African-Americans “don’t have a reason” to vote for Republicans. Steele was asked Tuesday night during a speech to roughly 200 students at DePaul University why African-Americans should vote for GOP candidates. “You really don’t have a reason, to be honest,” Steele responded, as was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. “We haven’t done a very good job of giving you one.” Steele has made similar comments in the past, saying during an...