'Black Tea' not the only explanation for racial breakthrough in South Carolina
June 24, 2010 — While it took second place in the headlines to the election of an Indian-American woman as the state’s Republican nominee for governor, state Rep. Tim Scott’s victory Tuesday in the Republican primary for South Carolina’s 1st District Congressional seat marks an even more dramatic milestone in terms of the long sweep of Southern history. It’s remarkable enough to say that an African-American Republican beat Paul Thurmond, Strom Thurmond’s son, in a runoff for the congressional seat from which U.S. Rep. Henry Brown is retiring. But that to some degree gives short shrift to what Scott accomplished. To get into Tuesday’s runoff, Scott was the frontrunner earlier this month in a field that included the sons of the two most famous Republicans in the state’s history (Thurmond and Carroll Campbell, Jr.), a local Tea Party activist, two former congressional aides and a couple of local officials. This victory, in other words, was the opposite of a fluke. Nor have there been any reports it was much affected by cross-over voting by African-American Democrats. Scott was not the only African-American Republican to win a Southern congressional primary Tuesday: in North Carolina’s 13th District, Bill Randall won in a race where there was less conversation about his color than about his comments suggesting some kind of “collusion” between BP and the federal government related to the Gulf oil spill. The two elections were different in significance, however. Randall becomes the underdog in a general election race against four-term incumbent Democrat Brad Miller. Scott won in a much more Republican district where he will face only token opposition it the fall. He is almost certain to becp,e the first African-American Republican in Congress since JC Watts, and the first from the Deep South since Reconstruction. What really makes Scott’s win significant is where it happened. South Carolina’s 1st District stretches from Charleston, where a group of plantation owners and their slaves from Barbados put down stakes in 1670, up the coast to Horry County, where a family named Baxter made landfall some time in the 1720s. People go on endlessly about what really is Southern, but whatever it is, this is where it starts. Scott’s victory is an example of what some are calling “black tea.” Like Nikki Haley in the governor’s race, he had the endorsement of Sarah Palin, and he ran to Thurmond’s right on the issue of earmarks. Scott said he wouldn’t seek earmark money to dredge the access to the Port of Charleston, while Thurmond said he would. But Scott won this race as a full-service politician, not simply an ideologue. Before going to the legislature he chaired the Charleston County Council, and served on that local body for 13 years. He had the support not only of Palin but a number of Washington Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, chair of the National Republican Campaign Committee. If he wins his general election race as expected, Scott will go to Congress with U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the Democratic majority whip from the adjoining district. That perhaps says something about parties and race: the breakthroughs follow the opportunities. |
