As the Republican Party prepares to retake the House, it is presenting voters with its most diverse slate of candidates in recent memory—candidates reflective of the men and women you’d see on Main Street every day. Contrary to what Democrats and the media claim, our party is proving that we represent the interests of the many rather than the few, and that priorities like energy independence, equal opportunity, border security, and prosecuting crime are common sense to Americans of all backgrounds.
The numbers speak for themselves. Of the Republicans on the ballot for the U.S. House next month, 80 are women, 33 are Hispanic, 28 are Black, 13 are Asian, and three are Native American. Unlike many on the left, their campaigns are based not on stoking divisions along racial or gender lines, but on presenting their visions for the future.
Take the example of Monica De La Cruz, who is campaigning in Texas’ 15th Congressional District along the southern border. She is running to address an immigration crisis that has stretched her community thin, and that Democrat policies have only encouraged.
De La Cruz knows the importance of immigration firsthand—her grandmother fled political injustice in Mexico and legally immigrated to the U.S. decades ago. But she also sees up close how the Biden administration’s lack of border enforcement has strained her community, caused a surge in crime, and disadvantaged all of those who came to America legally. A small business owner and mother of two, De La Cruz is showing voters that she has the experience and the toughness to get results for her district—a district never previously held by a Republican.
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Across the country in Rhode Island, Allan Fung, a son of Chinese immigrants from British Hong Kong, is running to unseat a Democrat who has held office for over 20 years. Fung has already made history as the first mayor of Chinese ancestry in Rhode Island’s history, serving as mayor of Cranston for 12 years. Now he could do it again as his state’s first Chinese American member of Congress. But that’s not why Fung is running.
He is running on policies that Main Street voters care about: lowering the cost of living, lowering prices at the pump, and standing with law enforcement. Prior to serving as mayor, Fung was a criminal prosecutor. He watched as Democrats’ anti-police rhetoric and refusal to prosecute crime led to more dangerous communities across America. In 2021, Providence, Rhode Island, saw an increase in homicides for the third straight year. Fung is proving to voters that he has the experience and qualifications to make a meaningful difference.
That’s also the case with Wesley Hunt, an African American graduate of West Point who served in the U.S. Army for eight years and is now running in Texas’ 38th Congressional District. Deployed to combat zones in the Middle East, Hunt completed 55 air missions as an Apache helicopter pilot during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He knows what it takes to keep America safe and secure, and he appears poised to win handily next month.
While running his own campaign, Hunt is also a proud advocate for other diverse Republican candidates, traveling far beyond his Texas district to raise money and provide assistance to Black and Hispanic conservatives. When it comes to helping the GOP appeal to as many voters as possible, he knows the stakes are high. As he put it, “If you don’t have people like me, and women, step up and say, actually, it’s OK to be a person of color and to be a Republican, then we’re going to lose the next generation.”
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Fortunately, women and people of color are stepping up and choosing to not only run as Republicans, but to vote for Republicans. Hispanic voters, once solidly democratic, are shifting steadily to the GOP. In 2020, all but one of the 14 House seats the GOP flipped were won by a woman or minority candidate. In statewide races, women and minorities accounted for 71% of the party’s successes.
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Of course, the work is not yet complete. There is always room to further diversify our movement. But the success achieved in recent years is proof that Americans are not falling for the identity politics of the left, which groups voters by race and gender. Policies like limited government and equal opportunity transcend demographic differences. And come next year, new and diverse champions for these policies will be working on behalf of all Americans in Washington. We need them now more than ever.
