Samiyah Diaz Offers a New Face for the Republican Party

March 6, 2006

Source: The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/03/06/gop_picks_a_fight/

On March 6, 2006 The Boston Globe reported, "She is the daughter of immigrants. She is black and Hispanic. She is a single mother, and a Muslim. And, to the delight of the state party, Samiyah Diaz is also a Republican. The law student, who is collecting signatures to oppose state Senator Dianne Wilkerson, the Roxbury Democrat, in November, may have little chance of besting the 13-year incumbent. But for longtime Republicans, Diaz's candidacy is as much about shifting the image of the Republican Party as it is about winning... Diaz, 28, says labels don't matter. She is basing her candidacy partly on what she sees as Wilkerson's shortcomings: failure to pay federal income taxes, foreclosure on her condominium, $70,000 in campaign donations and expenses that are currently being investigated by the state attorney general's office... Diaz, currently in her second year at New England School of Law, had been thinking about running for office for a few years. She decided to join the Republicans because, she said, 'they believe that anyone can come from anything and become something. The platform of the party believes in individual rights and responsibilities, and that's something I believe in.'"