carpetbaggers

Cultural  

1. Northerners who went to the South after the Civil War to take part in Reconstruction governments, when persons who had supported the Confederacy were not allowed to hold public office (see Fourteenth Amendment). Some of them arrived, according to legend, carrying only one carpetbag, which symbolized their lack of permanent interest in the place they pretended to serve.

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Carpetbagger is still a general term for nonresident politicians who exploit their districts.

Example Sentences

Do voters really still punish carpetbaggers and reward candidates with deep ties to their districts?

From Salon • Aug. 19, 2022

“We don’t want carpetbaggers coming in here with lots of money,” Mr. Niceley told a local television station last month.

From New York Times • Apr. 20, 2022

But titles like those were not what drew Frey and other carpetbaggers to YA during the gold rush that followed Twilight and The Hunger Games.

From Slate • Dec. 17, 2019

Most were native whites led by a small number of carpetbaggers.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

“When the carpetbaggers commenced takin’ over, them Stokeses built a rock wall around the fam’ly graveyard and took off for Brazil, lock, stock, and barrel.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns