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Washington D.C.– New Republican congressmen Allen West of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina have drawn plenty of attention as the first two GOP African Americans to fill House seats since Julius Caesar Watts Jr. of Oklahoma, better known by the initials J.C., left Congress in 2003.

Not all the attention has been positive. West, for instance, had an early personnel misstep when he hired to his staff a conservative talk radio host who had called Speaker Nancy Pelosi “garbage.” The host stayed in radio.

West, who won with Tea Party support, has indicated he’s inclined to join the Congressional Black Caucus; Scott has sounded less certain.

Jason Johnson, a political scientist at Hiram College in Ohio, told Morning Edition co-host Renee Montagne in an interview airing Wednesday he thinks it’s actually more likely Scott would interact with the Democratic and generally liberal CBC than West.

Read entire article at NPR.org