carpetbagger
Outsider seeking office
A carpetbagger is an outsider who moves to a new area seeking political or economic advantage.
The term originated after the American Civil War for Northerners who went South during Reconstruction, supposedly carrying all their belongings in a carpetbag.
Now it applies broadly to any opportunist exploiting a place where they have no roots: The candidate was dismissed as a carpetbagger who'd only moved to the district six months before the election.
One who enters uninvited
- newcomerRecent arrival somewhere
- transplantMove tissue between bodies
- strangerPerson not yet known
- nonnativeNot indigenous to a place
migrant · settler · northerner · alien · foreigner · emigrant · sojourner · itinerant
One who uses unfairly
- profiteerOne exploiting shortages
- speculatorOne wagering on outcomes
- schemerCrafty, deceitful planner
- manipulatorOne who controls cunningly
fortune-hunter · mercenary · adventurer · predator · vulture · shark · swindler · gold-digger
Person seeking selection
- nomineeOne proposed for position
- electionOrganized public voting
- campaignOrganized effort toward goal
- constituencyElectoral district's voters
ballot · delegate · partisan · electorate · incumbent · lobbyist · platform · caucus
Affectionate term for rogue
- freedmenPeople released from slavery
- postbellumAfter a war
- radicalRoot-indicating symbol
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
amendment · suffrage · unionist · confederacy · plantation · sharecropping · abolition · integration
interloper
One who enters uninvited
- newcomerRecent arrival somewhere
- transplantMove tissue between bodies
- strangerPerson not yet known
nonnative · migrant · settler · northerner · alien · foreigner · emigrant · sojourner · itinerant · transient
exploiter
One who uses unfairly
- profiteerOne exploiting shortages
- speculatorOne wagering on outcomes
- schemerCrafty, deceitful planner
manipulator · fortune-hunter · mercenary · adventurer · predator · vulture · shark · swindler · gold-digger · plunderer
candidate
Person seeking selection
constituency · ballot · delegate · partisan · electorate · incumbent · lobbyist · platform · caucus · gerrymandering
scalawag
Affectionate term for rogue
- freedmenPeople released from slavery
- postbellumAfter a war
- radicalRoot-indicating symbol
emancipation · amendment · suffrage · unionist · confederacy · plantation · sharecropping · abolition · integration · reform
- 1860sAbraham Lincoln, American Civil War, Appomattox, Confederacy, Confederate States
- political jargonfilibuster, gerrymandering, caucus, pork barrel, lame duck
- Southern PoliticsDixiecrats, Jim Crow, poll tax, poll taxes, one-party rule
- exploitersexploiter, predator, parasite, user, leech
- opportunistsopportunist, exploiter, user, gold digger, fortune hunter
- Civil War Slangskedaddle, Johnny Reb, bluebelly, grayback, copperhead
carpetbaggernative son
Man of his birthplace
native daughter · local · native · insider · homegrown