New Hampshire Republicans are facing a primary in the state’s 2nd District with the entry of a young, female Hispanic state representative into the race.
{mosads}State Rep. Marilinda Garcia (R) is filing papers on Monday to run for Rep. Ann McLane Kuster’s (D) seat, according to the New Hampshire Union-Leader, in a race targeted by Republicans as a possible pickup opportunity in 2014.
She’ll face former state Sen. Gary Lambert in the GOP primary.
Garcia told the Union-Leader she’s running in part to effect change in the GOP, a party she said is “populated mostly with old white men.”
“Yes, there is a stereotype about the Republican Party at this point. It does concern me, so I feel it’s incumbent on me to be the change you want to see,” she told the paper.
She added: “If my participation shows we actually have a diverse Republican Party, with a lot of women and young people acting on our current concerns and turning away from what we see from the failed policies of government expansion and redistribution of wealth that the current administration is promoting, I think we can have a profound effect.”
The GOP suffered losses with women and Hispanics in the 2012 elections, prompting the Republican National Committee to call for more outreach to those demographic groups, and more minority and female candidates, in an election postmortem report.
According to her website, Garcia has worked as an adjunct professor of music at Phillips Exeter Academy and in cybersecurity. She also served as co-chairman of the New Hampshire House Republican caucus and majority whip, and was named one of the RNC’s “Rising Stars” last year.
Garcia, who’s calling for a repeal of ObamaCare, said “circumstances” arising in the past few months had inspired her to run for Congress.
“I’ve never had a long-term political ambition in mind for myself, but in the last few months, circumstances have led me to do serious introspection and decide that if I ever were to consider running for higher office in the future, maybe the future is now,” she said.