Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
In
Heated Georgia House Race, GOP Candidate's Husband Sends Message Urging Voters
to 'Free the Black Slaves From the Democratic Plantation'
By Sophia Tesfaye [1] / Salon [2]
May 3, 2017
With
just over one month to go until the runoff election, the Republican running for
Congress in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District is suddenly facing a public
relations disaster because of her husband’s social-media share.
The
race to replace Republican Tom Price, who vacated the seat to serve in
President Donald Trump’s administration as the secretary of the Department of
Health and Human Services, is already the most expensive House race ever. Now
the race is garnering national headlines because of one racist and
inflammatory tweet.
The campaign of Karen Handel [3], a
former secretary of state of Georgia, was thrown into an unanticipated
crisis mode this week after CNN first reported [4] that
her husband, entrepreneur Steve Handel, had shared a meme on Twitter that
encouraged votes for his wife to “free the black slaves from the
Democratic plantation.”
Accompanied
by a picture of the Republican candidate, the meme claimed, “Handel will fight
for minorities to excel.” Handel’s picture was juxtaposed next to an image of a
black man in a suit with the following words:
Criticizing
black children for obeying the law, studying in school and being ambitious as
acting white is a trick the party plays on black people to keep them poor,
ignorant and dependent.
“Join
The Movement,” the meme implored.
Retweeting
the image, Steve Handel wrote a message urging his followers to “request
your absentee ballot today” in order to vote for his wife. Early voting began
on Tuesday for the June 20 runoff election.
Karen
Handel placed [5] second
out of the 17 candidates who competed in a special election held on April 18.
She is now in a tight runoff race against Democrat Jon Ossoff, who nearly won
the House seat outright, placing first in last month’s contest but failing
to garner 50 percent of the votes. Ossoff capitalized on anti-Trump sentiment
in a district that has voted Republican since 1979. Trump won the district
by scoring only 1.5 percent more
votes [6] in November than Democrat Hillary Clinton, who
drew support from college graduates in the district’s affluent Atlanta suburbs.
If
Ossoff receives support from the other Democratic candidates, he would
have about 49 percent of the vote, the Democratic National Committee’s
chairman, Tom Perez, recently told CNN. So the Ossoff campaign plans to target
as many as 35,000 Democrats who voted in November’s presidential election
but not during last month’s special election, he explained.
The
30-year-old Ossoff raised a startling $8.3 million in the run-up to the April
18 special election — about 17 times what a candidate in a competitive
district normally raises, according to The Washington Post. Total television
and radio spending in the district is already closing in on $30 million, making
this the most expensive House race in history.
President
Trump raised $750,000 for Handel [7] last
week while he was in Atlanta for the National Rifle Association convention.
Dems
failed in Kansas and are now failing in Georgia. Great job Karen Handel! It is
now Hollywood vs. Georgia on June 20th.
Despite
major outside money, FAKE media support and eleven Republican candidates, BIG
"R" win with runoff in Georgia. Glad to be of help!
The
Paul Ryan-connected PAC Congressional Leadership Fund [10] has
also vowed to spend $2.5 million in TV advertising backing Handel beginning on
May 10.
A
spokesperson for Handel’s campaign told CNN [11] that
Steve Handel’s reposting of the racist message with his own commentary was a
“mistake.”
“Like
many of us, he, meaning Steve, made a mistake and retweeted something he didn’t
pay a lot of attention to, thinking it was just an early vote message. It
clearly was not appropriate and has been deleted.”
The
controversial Twitter image has since been deleted by the original poster and
has vanished from Handel’s account as well.
Sophia
Tesfaye is the Deputy Politics Editor at Salon.
[13]
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/sophia-tesfaye
[2] http://www.salon.com
[3] http://www.salon.com/2017/04/20/meet-jon-ossoffs-republican-opponent-she-made-her-name-destroying-the-reputation-of-susan-g-komen-race-for-the-cure/
[4] http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/kfile-karen-handel-husband-tweet/
[5] http://www.salon.com/2017/04/19/to-be-continued-georgia-special-election-ends-in-runoff-as-jon-ossoff-comes-shy-of-majority/
[6] http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/02/28/all-about-the-georgia-6th-congressional-district-election/
[7] https://patch.com/georgia/eastcobb/trump-raises-750-000-karen-handel-atlanta-visit
[8] https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/854676780527079425
[9] https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/854547423464759296
[10] http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/04/26/gop-super-pac-to-pump-another-3-5m-into-georgia-6th-race/
[11] http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/kfile-karen-handel-husband-tweet/index.html
[12] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on In Heated Georgia House Race, GOP Candidate's Husband Sends Message Urging Voters to 'Free the Black Slaves From the Democratic Plantation'
[13] http://www.alternet.org/
[14] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
[2] http://www.salon.com
[3] http://www.salon.com/2017/04/20/meet-jon-ossoffs-republican-opponent-she-made-her-name-destroying-the-reputation-of-susan-g-komen-race-for-the-cure/
[4] http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/kfile-karen-handel-husband-tweet/
[5] http://www.salon.com/2017/04/19/to-be-continued-georgia-special-election-ends-in-runoff-as-jon-ossoff-comes-shy-of-majority/
[6] http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/02/28/all-about-the-georgia-6th-congressional-district-election/
[7] https://patch.com/georgia/eastcobb/trump-raises-750-000-karen-handel-atlanta-visit
[8] https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/854676780527079425
[9] https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/854547423464759296
[10] http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/04/26/gop-super-pac-to-pump-another-3-5m-into-georgia-6th-race/
[11] http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/kfile-karen-handel-husband-tweet/index.html
[12] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on In Heated Georgia House Race, GOP Candidate's Husband Sends Message Urging Voters to 'Free the Black Slaves From the Democratic Plantation'
[13] http://www.alternet.org/
[14] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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