-By Warner Todd Huston
A few days ago I noted that an American Indian got elected to the state legislature in Montana as a Republican. But the fact is, the 2014 GOP freshman field was more diverse than ever and many of those candidates won their elections. Minorities took seats as Republicans from coast to coast.
In Montana, G. Bruce Meyers, a member of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe and a Republican, took a seat in the State House and took it away from the Democrats who have held that seat for decades and decades.
But Meyers isn’t alone. A recent New York Times report notes that the GOP took control of 69 of the 99 statehouse chambers (both House and Senates) this year and many of these new and returning Republicans are minorities.
“They include, the paper noted on November 29, “Jill Upson, the first black Republican woman elected to the West Virginia House; Victoria Seaman, the first Latina Republican elected to the Nevada Assembly; Beth Martinez Humenik, whose win gave Republicans a one-seat edge in the Colorado Senate; and Young Kim, a Korean-American woman who was elected to the California Assembly, helping to break the Democratic supermajority in the State Legislature.”
And that was just the first few mentioned. The story goes on to mention many more African Americans, latinos, and other minorities across the country.
Several minorities (and many women) went to Washington from the GOP, as well. Mia Love from Utah becomes the first black women elected to Congress from Utah–Democrat OR Republican. In Tim Scott the GOP already had the first black Senator from South Carolina since reconstruction.
The GOP also has the first and second Indian-Americans as a governors with Bobby Jindal in Louisiana and Nikki Haley inSouth Carolina. Not to mention Susana Martinez, an Hispanic woman as Governor of New Mexico.
In any case, the point here is that it is a canard that the GOP is only for old, white, men and this year that could not be more true.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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