House GOP backs candidate even after he wrote multiple racist Facebook posts

The National Republican Congressional Committee is still raising funds for California Republican House candidate Ted Howze despite the publication of racist and bigoted posts and conspiracy theories on Howze’s personal social media pages, Politico reported on Wednesday.

Howze is still listed as part of the NRCC’s “Young Guns” candidate recruitment program, which “identifies candidates across the country who embody the principles of the House Republican Conference and show promise of running a successful campaign,” according to its website.

Howze is listed as a “Contender” candidate, and has his own page on the site displaying a bio, a photo, and links for making contributions.

The NRCC did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday on whether the group continues to support Howze’s campaign, nor did it respond to a similar request from Politico the day before.

In the social media posts, Howze accused Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, of being child molesters.

“Surely they understand that pedophiles are ‘dreamers’ too,” Howze wrote.

He also claimed that Muslims cannot be good American citizens: “The Western world and Christian Nations should all be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS!”

When previous racist and bigoted posts were unearthed in early May, Howze claimed he did not write them.

“I made the mistake of allowing others access to these accounts unknowingly — and I am angered, horrified and extremely offended that these ugly ideas were shared or posted by those individuals several years ago,” his campaign said in a statement.

Those posts were deleted, but the recently uncovered posts were still available as recently as Tuesday, Politico reported.

“Bigotry has no place in society — let alone the U.S. House of Representatives,” Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. Instead of Republicans withdrawing their support of Howze, “all we have heard from them is silence,” Bustos said.

Howze is running against Democratic incumbent Rep. Josh Harder, a freshman who defeated an incumbent Republican to flip the seat in 2018.

Update, May 21: GOP leaders said in a statement Wednesday night that they had removed Howze from the NRCC’s Young Guns program. His name no longer appears on the program’s website.

“The content in question on Mr. Howze’s social media channels is disappointing and disturbing. Bigotry and hateful rhetoric — in any form — have no place in the Republican Party,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

He called the posts “unacceptable” and not reflective of “the Ted Howze that I have briefly interacted with.”

NRCC Chair Tom Emmer also called the posts “unacceptable” and said they were “not indicative of the Republican Party and what we are building here at the NRCC with our diverse slate of candidates.”

Emmer and McCarthy said they will keep Howze off of the NRCC’s Young Guns program “while they look into the origin of the posts,” according to Politico.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.