Candidates of color in the Republican Party like Haley — as well Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott — have been talking about their identities on the trail, while also trying to appeal to a voting base that is less diverse than the country as a whole.
Omar Wasow, a political science professor at UC Berkeley, says they have to navigate their identities in a way that appeals to segments of the Republican Party that have “become increasingly vocal about the idea that this is a white Christian nation.”
“A candidate like Nikki Haley has to walk a real tightrope on an issue like immigration,” he said, “because she is both the beneficiary of an immigration system that welcomed her family and allowed to her thrive — and at the same time she is embedded in a party that is quite hostile to the idea of an immigration system that is open to the world.”
That doesn’t mean that Republican candidates of color can completely avoid discussing race, according to Sara Sadhwani, a politics professor at Pomona College.
She says there was a time when Republican candidates could shy away from these issues, but that’s not true anymore.
“And I think when we are in this time period in which a very mobilized faction of the MAGA/Trump conservatives are espousing this type of white grievance politics,” she explained. “I think they are going to have questions for Republican candidates of color about how loyal they will actually be to the party platform that they want to see advanced.”
The fact that Vivek Ramaswamy honestly believes that today’s GOP will vote for someone named Vivek Ramaswamy is a contender for the most oblivious take of the election cycle so far.
As an aside… How could an Indian American be anti-diversity and supportive of “Restoring America’s National Identity?” Has no one told him that’s code for White Supremacy?
Edit: Upon reviewing the rest of his campaign site, holy crap this dude is the worst. I want more diversity in politics. I want Indian Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and other POC to represent our nation, including the presidency. But… no, not like this.
NPR very carefully avoiding calling the Republican party white nationalists
Best description of NPR that I have ever heard came from Conan O’Brien at a Whitehouse correspondents dinner:
“News that’s delivered as if there was a baby asleep in the next room.”
Joking aside though, they do a great job of calmly and rationally talking about controversial topics. The weekend shows can get surprisingly spicy though.
The candidates of color will have to agree that White Christians are the real persecuted minority. I think they will have no trouble doing this. They being said, I’ve always loved Nikki Haley as a politician. It feels early to say she missed her time because she is relatively young but I don’t see today’s republican party getting behind her.
The whole “Christian nation” thing makes me nervous. A lot of the founding fathers were deists or agnostics.
True, and they wanted to keep religion out of government because they had just won independence from the monarchy that established the “Church of England”. They knew how problematic it was when the head of state is also the head of the church. Separation of church and state protects both entities; mixing them de-legitimizes both. Modern evangelicals seem to have forgotten that.
