I don't necessarily believe there's a message in the fact that I'm an African-American Republican. I think there is a message that America as a whole, we are now awake. We are looking at a political construct and we're fairly disappointed. I think the message is no matter where you come from in this country, there is great potential.

I see myself as a person who wants to serve the constituents within my district and find a way to move those who are not in our position philosophically to our position.

And the Tea Party represents many of us who believe that we are taxed enough already. We believe in free markets.

What we`re seeing in so many of the counterprotests. We`re seeing America rise in a way that it did not in the `60s, which I think is powerful and symbolic to the rest of the world, that we reject the darkness and we embrace the light.

I think when you look to the future what you'll find is that the Republican Party is building a bigger party base on stronger values.

We have to attack those things which stand in the way of America progress. And what stands in the way of American progress right now is the federal government.

South Carolina is a great place to be from.