House candidate gets slot at GOP convention after Fox News host insists on it

Kim Klacik, a Republican candidate in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, appeared as a featured speaker on Monday night at the Republican National Convention after Fox News host Laura Ingraham requested that she be given a speaking slot.

Klacik is running for a seat in a district that includes half the city of Baltimore. It is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Kweisi Mfume. Klacik does not live in the district, but has said she will move there if she wins the race.

Klacik, who is Black, spoke a few minutes after conservative activist Charlie Kirk delivered a white nationalist-themed address in which he called Donald Trump the “bodyguard of Western civilization.”

She described Baltimore as a city in “decay,” and said the same was true in “many of America’s Democrat-run cities,” echoing a line of attack against cities with large minority populations that Trump and other Republicans have made in the past.

“And yet the Democrats still assume that Black people will vote for them. No matter how much they let us down and take us for granted,” said Klacik. “We’re sick of it. We’re not going to take it anymore. The days of blindly supporting the Democrats are coming to an end.”

An ad in which she used the same themes and similar language went viral and led to Klacik appearing several times on Fox News.

On Aug. 18, on the second night of the Democratic convention, Klacik appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show “The Ingraham Angle.” Ingraham asked Klacik if the Republican National Committee had reached out to her to speak at its convention. Klacik told her she had received support from the party but it had not yet asked her to be a speaker.

“Kimberly, you should be appearing at the RNC next week,” Ingraham replied. “And I hope they’re watching, because if they haven’t figured this out yet, then I don’t know what to say.”

About three minutes after she had appeared on Fox, Trump tweeted about the candidate and posted a link to her campaign ad.

“Kimberly will work with the Trump Administration and we will bring Baltimore back, and fast. Don’t blow it Baltimore, the Democrats have destroyed your city!” he tweeted.

Less than a week later she was speaking at the convention.

Klacik is extremely unlikely to win her race for a seat that was held by the late Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings and has been held by a Democrat since 1953. The seat has been rated as “safe” for the Democrats by the Cook Political Report and Politico.

In the April special election between Klacik and Mfume after Cummings’ death, Mfume, the former CEO of the NAACP, won a lopsided victory 73.8% to 25.1%. Klacik’s affiliation with Trump and the Republican Party is likely to be a negative in Maryland, where Trump has a 55% disapproval rating.

Klacik’s booking at the Republican National Convention after her Fox News appearance is the latest example of the influence the right-wing network has over Trump.

Fox News has been the driver behind many of Trump’s policies and rhetoric, as well as key personnel decisions. The network uses the same false framing and language as Trump’s political campaign in attacking Democrats.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.