Josh Kraushaar writes about what many are unwilling to admit -- the tea party has contributed substantially to diversity in politics.
SC Gov. Nikki Haley is an Indian-American and was primarily a tea party-backed canddiate.
Incoming South Carolina senator, Tim Scott, is black and a tea party champion.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is Cuban-American, and was also boosted heavily by the tea party.
Incoming Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won a bruising primary on the strength of tea party support.
As Kraushaar notes, in each of those cases, the establishment backed white males for those offices.
It’s ironic that at a time when party strategists are publicly panicking over the party’s need to diversify or face extinction, they’re blind to the reality that if it wasn’t for the much-maligned tea party, the Republican Party would be even more homogeneous than it is today.
I don't expect we'll hear much about this in the future, because it involves too large a concession for those who incorrectly branded the tea party a crass, race-baiting movement.
That gross misrepresentation has obscured the fact that the tea party movement has, more than any party (including the Democratic party), fueled the election of high-profile governors and senators across the country.
