Sue Googe, candidate for Congress in the Research-Triangle based Fourth congressional district, is a new breed of Republican. One of a handful of Chinese-Americans running for Congress this year, Googe is the only one who isn’t a Democrat.
She also has a compelling biography – born in Hainan Island in communist China to illiterate parents in a home without running water or electricity. Her grandfather had been a military leader against the Communist Party in the late 1940s. After the Communists prevailed, he was executed and the family property confiscated – leaving them with nothing.
Despite a childhood filled with struggle, Googe overcame her circumstances, attending a local boarding school, landing a job as an accountant, and immigrating to the United States in 1998 at the age of 26. In the Raleigh area, she began a career in the information technology industry, finally becoming a U.S. citizen in 2005. Five years later, she founded a real estate investment company based in Cary.
Given her experiences growing up under communism, Googe is convinced that small government, free enterprise, and liberty are the keys to preserving the American Dream for others. She’s particularly strong on the issue of free speech, and fears that chipping away at the 1st Amendment will make America go down the path of China.
But it’s on the issue of foreign policy where Googe most stands out. She characterizes herself as anti-war, and while she supports building a strong military, says that it must be used wisely. She opposes America being the “policeman of the world” and supports going to war only once the President has received the approval of Congress, in accordance with the Constitution – a strong repudiation of the policies of the George W. Bush administration.
If elected, Googe’s top priority would be reigning in what she says is an out-of-control national debt that threatens the economy and the security of our nation. In addition to opposing undeclared wars that lead into a financial black hole, she opposes corporate welfare and bank bailouts. Googe also wants to cut down on illegal immigration, contrasting her own entry into the United States with the thousands of people here illegally.
Her platform couldn’t be more different than that of her opponent, Representative David Price, a Democrat who has represented the Fourth District for almost three decades. Price, an establishment Democrat, will be difficult to defeat – to say the least. But Googe is convinced she can win. While she’s unhappy about the uncertainty over congressional redistricting, the latest plan has made the Fourth more Republican. In the process, the legislature made the district much more compact, no longer extending into Fayetteville or Alamance County. For Googe, that’s a relief – making for a district that’s much easier to travel and less expensive in which to campaign.
Regardless, she’ll face tough odds. The Fourth consists of Orange County and a strip of Durham County, connecting it to almost all of Raleigh. It’s a strongly Democratic district that gave both Barack Obama and Kay Hagan 65% of the vote.
With that in mind, it’s clear that only a different kind of Republican can win here – someone who can appeal not just to Republicans, but to Democrats and unaffiliated voters as well. With her background and her platform, Googe thinks she’s well-equipped to do so – and is exactly the new breed of Republican who can defeat David Price in November.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
Strange that this “new kind of Republican” is a member of a party that supports all the things she opposes, except for small business liberation from the shackles of regulation. It’s under Obama (as it was under Clinton) that the national deficit each year as diminished by more than half from when his term started, the national deficit has been growling more and more slowly and as a smaller ratio of a growing economy. It’s under Bush-Cheney that free speech was severely curtailed, to the point that those who disagreed with their policies of unbridled war were called “traitors” by their allies and government agents.
I also wonder if this real estate investor wants the sort of free enterprise that leads to buildings being constructed with no safety feature, as has been rampant in China for the past 40 years, so that the smallest tremor causes thousands of deaths from collapsed earthquakes. I wonder if she approves of budgets put together by her fellow partisans that increase the military budget at the expense of every other area of spending, from medical care for veterans to education for children.
Like so many who come to this country from the communist world, Ms. Googe seems to live in a state of over-reaction, grasping everything here that’s different from what she left behind. Sadly, the GOP has positioned itself to take advantage of that tendency, while the Dems have tended to offer “a hand up” and “free relocation services” and then let the immigrants live the American Dream on their own. And when they do, they thank the Republicans. And, like Clarence Thomas, gladly cut the rungs off the ladder below them once they’ve climbed up.
PC police here. Wondering if you can find a different metaphor for this Asian American’s woman’s candidacy that doesn’t implicitly compare her to farm animals. Otherwise interesting article. Thanks.
For many Democrats and Independents, David Price has been on the wrong side of many political and economic issues for a long time; so much so that many of us view him as a corporate hack and a DINO and are anxious to see him retired. The ideology of each particular candidate is becoming more important than that candidate’s party affiliation in todays politics. I would have rather voted for Ron Paul than Barack Obama. Sue Googe sounds good to this Independent, I hope she cleans Price’s clock!
For many Democrats and Independents, David Price has been on the best side of political and economic issues for a long time, so much so that many of them appropriately view him as the consummate progressive House representative, and are relieved to know that he is running again. The ideology and party of each particular candidate is given weight in the general electorate’s mind, but thinking and attentive voters in his district see a candidate’s personal integrity, legislating skills, strong support of education and science, positions on major issues, willingness and ability to address those issues with reason and not ideology, and positions on key committees (like appropriations, of which Price is a member) as more important. Was happy to vote for Obama (twice), and saw Ron Paul to be blithering waste. Regardless of her family and personal history, Googe’s choice of party affiliation suggests that she is misguided. And Price will clean her clock.
Nice PR, but she has about as much chance of winning in the currently drawn 4th District as she would if she was running for elective office in Castro’s Cuba. The 4th District is Democrats’ turf and David Price is about as sure a bet to win re election as anyone in NC. Her candidacy won’t even help increase Republican turnout. At best, she may pick up a few votes from moderates who usually vote Democrat.
Surprised the blog doesn’t say she was born in a log cabin….
And that line “Her platform couldn’t be more different than that of her opponent, Representative David Price”??? Actually, the blog shows that her beliefs are much more different than many of those in the GOP radical fringe AND also in the GOP establishment, wouldn’t you say?
A platform of being “anti-war,” opposing “America being the “policeman of the world,” repudiating the executive warring policies of the Bush administration, and opposing “corporate welfare and bank bailouts” is far afield from the platform of many GOP’ers –both conservative and uber-conservative.
So, if her positions are different than Price’s on many issues, but also different than the many in the GOP on many other issues, one really does wonder how she can win.
And if she believes in “small government,” one has to wonder what her reactions are to STATE gerrymandering local election districts, or the STATE telling smaller local governments how they must regulate public bathroom use, locate CSA memorials, or run local planning/zoning approval processes……..
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