Black Republicans: A Look Into the November, 2014 National Elections

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/11/08/362547523/as-gop-swept-congress-black-republicans-took-home-historic-wins

            This NPR article describes a new phenomenon in the Republican party of African American candidates winning historic seats in both the House and the Senate.  Specifically, the article mentions three black Republicans whom took home victories in which they were the racial minority in their districts/states.  Mia Love is a Haitian-American and Mormon who won Utah’s 4^th District.  This marks a historic win on many different levels.  Love a black, Republican, and LDS woman was the first to break these barriers in the state of Utah.  Secondly, Tim Scott was the first elected African American Senator since Reconstruction in South Carolina.  This signaled an important win for the Republican Party.  Finally, Will Hurd is the first African American Republican from Texas to ever win a House seat.  These three candidates mark both historic victories for the Republican Party but also for the presence of black candidates within the party itself.

            The title of the article As GOP Swept Congress, Black Republicans Took Home Historic Wins is somewhat one-dimensional.  It is important to look at the word “historic” in all its many fashions.  These wins helped the Republicans sweep Congress.  Although somewhat minute and obvious point, this point is necessary to highlight that these were key races, contested races, which did not shuffle in a cookie cutter, uncontested candidates, but these campaigns constituted political battlegrounds.  Further, all three candidates were the racial minority in their districts/states.  Although only a sliver of the congressional races, this dispels the notion of descriptive representation within these specific races.  Additionally the sole presence of African Americans running on a Republican ticket is in the minority.  The historical context of the Republican party does not garner to African Americans.  Looking at previous presidential races the Republican party has not received more than 10 percent of the African American vote.  That being said, these three constitute leaders within the GOP.  When discussing these three wins within my political science senior seminar, we discussed that they are great politicians, quickly rising within the Republican ranks.  In the era of post-Obama politics, the Republican Party is morphing, trend that cannot be fully realized or analyzed until the legacy that President Obama will leave sails further into the past.

            The wins mentioned in this article mark a changing phenomenon not only within the Republican Party but also within Congress itself.  As the post-Obama era of candidates, the Republican and Democrat, are shuffled into all three branches of government it will be interesting to document the changes within both parties.