Here’s a heartwarming story you won’t hear from the liberal media. Clarence Thomas is helping a young woman he met attend college. And she’s a Democrat.

Casey Parks of The Oregonian reports.

University of Portland student gets help, inspiration from controversial Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

Some of Dakota Garza’s classmates plan to protest Thursday when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at the University of Portland.

Garza is a registered Democrat, but the junior won’t be among those raising a fuss about Thomas’ ultra-conservative judicial record. She has a unique friendship with Thomas, whom she met two years ago celebrating a national scholarship she’d won. Since then, he’s helped her fulfill her dream of earning a nursing degree.

At first glance, they’re unlikely friends — one of the country’s most enigmatic and polarizing public figures and a college student who spent much of her childhood sleeping in cars. Look past politics, however, and their lives aren’t so different.

“You have this idea of someone, of who you think they are,” Garza said. “Then you realize they’re a very different person, quite an amazing person.” …

Garza is hesitant to talk publicly about Thomas, whom she describes as a very private person, but said she emailed him soon after the conference to report that she’d decided to attend the University of Portland because it had the area’s best nursing school. Garza wants to help people and is pragmatic enough to seek a career that promised steady work.

The Rev. E. William Beauchamp, the university president, was working in his office that summer when his assistant knocked on the door and asked if he’d take a phone call from Clarence Thomas.

Supreme Court justices don’t often call the small Catholic school. “Yes,” Beauchamp said. “I think I will absolutely take that call.”

The justice asked about Garza’s financial situation. She’d won a handful of scholarships, but not enough to cover $37,000 a year in tuition plus room and board. Thomas asked Beauchamp if the school and the Alger Association could make up the difference.

They worked out a deal to cover Garza’s tuition for all four years. Thomas also introduced Garza to a family for whom she nannies to pay for other expenses.