As an American who is also a minority, I am frequently asked how it is I could vote Republican. Even in a severely polarized society where a great ideological chasm exists along racial lines, I stand firm on my party affiliation. When my values are questioned, my response is always the same: freedom.

My conversations with Democrats and Independents always circle back to the inception of the Republican Party, with President Abraham Lincoln being the first president to come from the newly established party. But why was it established at all? The very core value of the party is abolition.

Contrary to Leftmedia lemmings, the party did not use abolition as a strategic crutch to help the North win the Civil War. In fact, on July 6, 1854, an anti-slavery gathering called the Oaks Convention would be the inaugural political stage for the first Republican Party members. (The party itself was founded in Wisconsin in March of that year.) This new abolitionist party would facilitate freedom from tyranny for all enslaved peoples, while holding fast to the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The GOP still carries these values to this day, despite progressives insisting that the party “switched” somehow with the Democrat Party — the same party supported by slave owners and hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Second, I continue to vote Red as the Republican Party is our last stronghold for freedom of speech. Social media is the epicenter for public discourse, yet platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken their liberties too far to be considered “platforms.” Rather, the Big Tech entities behave as publishers, adding as many “fact-checking” stickers as possible on “incendiary” posts, while going as far as to ban a sitting president of the United States in Donald Trump.

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hopes to turn the tables in favor of Floridians who embrace freedom of speech with SB 7072, which would require platforms like Facebook and Twitter to not only allow user posts but consistently apply their terms of service or face lawsuits. A model Republican leader, DeSantis has further emboldened my faith in the party. My hope is that his motion encourages more states to do the same.

Finally, I remain with the Republican Party due to its consistent commitment to free markets. Small businesses were among our biggest casualties during the COVID “pandemic,” leaving companies to survive on breadcrumbs while power-hungry politicians forced many to fully shut down operations (with many closing their doors forever). In order to rebound, companies must be open to customers regardless of whether they wear a mask.

With the survival of the Texas economy in mind, Republican Governor Greg Abbott took the first step with his recent executive order prohibiting government entities from mandating masks in the Lone Star state. Only a true Republican could have made this decision that keeps freedom from medical discrimination at bay. After all, freedom is why the Republican Party was founded.

It’s not just Democrats and the politically illiterate that could use a history refresher. Republicans, too, can and should learn the roots of the party. And when more minorities come to understand what Republicans stand for, they’ll return home to the side of the aisle that fought for them in the first place.