As Democrats continue to make skin pigmentation a central issue of the presidential campaign, the Republican Party is the one with the most diverse primary field. All three Democrats – Marianne Williamson, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Joe Biden – are white. Of the 13 GOP candidates who have officially entered the race so far, five are not white.
Mayor Francis Suarez, who is of Cuban descent, announced his candidacy on Thursday, vowing to create a new brand of politics. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the first black senator in the South since Reconstruction, entered the contest last month. He joined Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador who, like biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, is of Indian descent. Also in the race is Larry Elder, a black conservative who was raised in Los Angeles' South Central neighborhood.
Even so, Mike Hill, a former Florida state legislator, an Air Force Academy graduate, and a member of the Project 21 Black Leadership Network, points out that none of the Republican candidates touts their own skin color.
"They have principles and values that have made this nation great, that we can all get behind," he says. "That is what we need to remain focused on, not simply skin color."
Hill submits that identity politics often lands unqualified people in important positions.
"We have evidence of this with our vice president (Kamala Harris), with the press secretary (Karine Jean-Pierre), and with the Supreme Court justice (Ketanji Brown Jackson) who were chosen primarily because of their skin color, not because of their ability," he lists.
That sort of system, Hill concludes, is "in direct violation of all the principles this nation stands for."
