OPINION:
Democrats and mainstream news outlets — but, as radio talk-show host Chris Plante says, I repeat myself — acted elated at Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s choice of Sen. Kamala Harris, California Democrat, as his vice presidential running mate.
Ms. Harris is described as the first Black vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket because her father, Donald Harris, an economics professor at Stanford University, immigrated from Jamaica and her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher, came to the United States from India.
Ms. Harris’ family background epitomizes the United States’ attraction to people worldwide as the great melting pot of opportunity and merit. Sort of like that of many other candidates this year. Many Republican candidates. Among them, in races GOP strategists consider most competitive:
• John James, running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Gary Peters in Michigan. Mr. James is a West Point graduate with master’s degrees in business from the universities of Michigan and Penn State. He’s married, the father of three children and served eight years as an Army Apache helicopter pilot, including repeated tours in Iraq.
Mr. James became president of the James Group, an international supply chain company founded by his father. He won the Republican Party primary to oppose Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow in 2018, losing in the general election 52% to 46%. Mr. James repeatedly has bested Gary Peters in fund-raising this year. If elected, he would become Michigan’s first African-American U.S. senator.
• Young Kim, seeking the U.S. House seat in California now occupied by Democratic Rep. Gil Cisneros, winner in 2010 of a lottery worth $266 million. The contest is a rematch, Mrs. Kim nearly defeating Mr. Cisneros two years ago. She is an immigrant from South Korea and Guam, wife, mother of four and founder of a women’s wear business.
Mrs. Kim worked for years as an aide to former Republican California Rep. Ed Royce and served in the California state assembly from 2014 to 2016. If elected, she’d be the first Korean-American woman in Congress.
• Rep. Mike Garcia, also in California. This May, he won a special election to replace Democrat Katie Hill, who resigned after publicity over an alleged affair with a campaign staffer. Mr. Garcia defeated Democratic state assemblywoman Christy Smith in the spring; Mrs. Smith opposes him again in November.
Mr. Garcia is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate. An F/A-18 fighter pilot, he flew more than 30 combat missions in Iraq, served 10 years on active duty and three more in the Naval Reserve. Mr. Garcia earned a master’s degree in national security policy studies from Georgetown University and after active duty worked 10 years for the intelligence and space division of Raytheon Technologies.
His parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1959.
• Wesley Hunt, the Republican candidate in Houston for Texas’ 7th Congressional District. Like Mr. James in Michigan, Mr. Hunt is a West Point grad and Army Apache helicopter pilot who flew combat missions in Iraq. A free market conservative, he told an interviewer that “as a Black person in America, I have experienced racism in my life. I understand the frustration and emotion.”
But the great-great-grandson of slaves noted his family has three West Point graduates. “I’m also willing to recognize the progress that we’ve made and the values our country stands for that allow us to move forward.”
After his military service, Mr. Hunt earned master’s degrees from Cornell University in business administration, public administration, and industrial and labor relations. He works in real estate and serves on the board of the Harris County (Houston) Center for Mental Health. Mr. Hunt and wife are the parents of one daughter with a second on the way.
Other minority Republican congressional candidates in competitive races include Utah’s Burgess Owens, an African-American member of the 1980 Oakland Raiders’ Super Bowl winners; Orange County (California) Supervisor Michelle Eunjoo Park Steel, born in South Korea; and in Florida districts, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, born in Cuba; and Maria Elvira Salazar, daughter of Cuban exiles, Harvard University master’s in public administration and longtime Spanish-language television journalist.
When it comes to diversity, and not merely the cosmetic variety of racially-obsessed media and politicians, candidate Hunt perhaps said it best:
“I absolutely despise identity politics. I hate looking at somebody and just assuming what their political affiliation is going to be based on their gender or the color of their skin.”
May the real diversity, that of free thought and free speech, of ideas and policies, win.
• Eric Rozenman is a communications consultant in Washington, D.C. The opinions expressed above are solely his own.
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