Hey I thought that the Republican Party was full of raaaaacists and flyover hicks. Someone ought to tell a certain beefy blogger that it is not his imagination Republican Party – but a GOP (actually a conservative base) which honors and rewards merit. Tim Scott won in a district that is 70% white and beat a relative of Strom Thurmond. Of course we here at this blog have heard of Tim Scott and Allen West.
hat tip – Powerline
by Jack Kelly
I bet you haven’t heard of Tim Scott, Allen West or Ryan Frazier. If they were Democrats, I might lose that bet.
But they’re not. Mr. Scott, Mr. West and Mr. Frazier are three of the 14 black candidates running for Congress as Republicans this November. Thirty-two black Republicans ran in the primaries.
Most of the 14 are running all-but-hopeless races against black Democratic incumbents in black majority districts. But Mr. Scott, running in South Carolina, is a virtual cinch to win. Mr. West (Florida) and Mr. Frazier (Colorado) are in races that are judged tossups.
If all three win, that would be a post-Reconstruction record. The largest number of black Republicans to serve together in the House in the last century is two, J.C. Watts (Oklahoma) and Gary Franks (Connecticut) between 1995 and 1997. There haven’t been any since Mr. Watts retired in 2003.
One might think the resurgence of black Republicans, coming as it does at a time when a black Democrat is president, would rate more than a feature story or two in the national media. But that would conflict with the liberal meme that Republicans are racist.
Many liberals also say Republicans are anti-immigrant, even though Hispanic Republicans are poised to win a Senate seat in Florida (Marco Rubio) and gubernatorial races in New Mexico (Susana Martinez) and Nevada (Brian Sandoval).
Nine Hispanic Republicans are seeking election to the House. Four — Bill Flores and Quico Canseco in Texas, Jaime Herrera in Washington state and David Rivera in Florida — are even-money or better to win.
The black Republican candidates (12 men and two women) are impressive people. I’m most impressed with Mr. West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who was a hero to his troops in Iraq.
[…]
Barack Obama got 96 percent of the black vote in 2008. If “only” 80 percent of blacks routinely voted Democratic, it’s hard to see how Democrats could win in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, North Carolina or Florida.
Read the rest here: The Rise of Black Republicans
Tags: Allen West, Jack Kelly
