This Boston Globe profile of Massachusetts senate candidate Republican Gabriel Gomez describes what reporter Stephanie Ebbert calls "a biography compiled by a team of Republican consultants trying to craft the perfect candidate."
Harvard Business School degree. Latino heritage. Military service. It’s all there.
That sure does sound like the perfect candidate. But it also sounds somewhat familiar.
Texas Congressman. Latino heritage. Military service.
That’s the biography of Democratic Presidential candidate Matthew Santos, the award-winning role Jimmy Smits played on television’s "The West Wing".
Gomez was born to Colombian immigrants in Los Angeles and grew up in Washington State, where he was recruited to play tennis at the Naval Academy. After graduation he was a naval pilot, then a Navy SEAL.
Santos was raised in Houston. He also attended the Naval Academy. He also became a pilot. After serving in the Gulf War, he joined the Marine Reserves, returned home, and entered politics, rising from a city councilman to representing Texas’s 18th district in Congress.
Here Santos’s and Gomez’s careers truly splinter. Gomez completed his service in 1996 and settled in Massachusetts, attending Harvard Business School and joining an equity firm. After making a fortune, Gomez charged into the political fray in his home state. And he's a Republican.
Both Gomez and Santos draw contrasts with their Washington establishment opponents. Both are youthful candidates who say they are open to bipartisanship.
It was said at the time that Matthew Santos was modeled after then-Illinois senator and future president Barack Obama. Who knew he'd also prefigure Gabriel Gomez?