Immigrant Song

11.05.2004

I thought I'd try a roundup of immigrants (or sons-of-immigrants) elected this week. We all know Barack Obama (his father's from Kenya), of course. The Democrat's new shining star is the bright hope for the party's future. But there were others. Interesting to note that many immigrants or second-generation Americans were elected from southern states.

Indian Americans (not to be confused w/ Native Americans) won several seats: Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (R) elected to the US House w/ a landslide 78% of the vote — in Louisiana. Swati Dandekar (D) & Nikki Randhawa (R) elected to the Iowa & South Carolina state legislatures.

Jimmy Meng (D), the first Chinese-American elected to the New York state legislature. David Wu (D), another Chinese-American, from Oregon, re-elected to the US House. Japanese-Americans include Mike Honda (D) & Robert Matsui (D), keeping their US House seats from California. Bob Hasegawa (D) elected to Washington's state legislature. Vietnamese-Americans include Van Tran (R) in California & Hubert Vo (D) in Texas, sent to their state legislatures.

Hispanics include Mel Martinez (R) from Florida & Ken Salazar (D) from Colorado, both elected to the US Senate. Salazar, however, is not an "immigrant", since his family moved to Colorado 406 years ago. Martinez, on the other hand, fled Cuba when he was 15.

If I missed any others (I'm sure I did), please let me know.

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NOTE 1: I didn't list African-Americans because I don't consider them in the "immigrant" category. Obama is the son of an immigrant, so I mentioned him. Salazar isn't an immigrant, so I shouldn't have included him. It should be noted, however, that there are now more black Representatives than in 2002, all Democrats.

NOTE 2: To read one of the most amazing acceptance speeches, check Obama's here. I've only heard him speak twice, and I'd vote for him for president. In large part because (and I'm very biased here) I believe that as long as immigrants keep coming to this country, it'll continue to have a bright future.

Posted by Miguel at 02:03 PM

Comments

I have not heard of this guy before. I will do some research on him just to be informed.

It would be awesome to see a minority, no matter what race, in such a high position. The only thing I ask is if America will be ready for it?

Posted by: Rodolfo Martinez at November 5, 2004 09:14 PM

Are you talking about just Asian/African immagrants or immagrants in general? I know Jay Kim (R) was elected to the House from California, but he was very crooked. He was taken before one of the House committees (Ethics or campaign violations) and later was no re-elected. He then tried to blame it on racism.

Tom Lantos (D-CA) survived during WWII before later coming to America. I think he mentions things about the Holocaust, but I don't know if he was in it, managed not to get taken to the camps, or if his family had to go to the camps.

My own House representative Pete Hoekstra (R) came with his family from Holland in the 1950s or 1960s.

Posted by: Kara at November 5, 2004 11:23 PM

Excellent post, thanks. --scott

Posted by: j.scott barnard at November 6, 2004 03:29 PM