The Missouri Republican Party blocks his bid for governor after learning that one of its members was an honorary member of the Ku Klux Klan and was even photographed giving a Nazi salute in front of a burning cross. Trying to.
“The Missouri Republican Party recognizes that Darrell Leon McClanahan III ran for governor as a Republican despite his ties to the Ku Klux Klan, which is in keeping with our party’s values and platform. It is fundamentally inconsistent,” the state party said. Posted on X Thursday.
“We have begun the process of removing McClanahan from the ballot as the Republican nominee.
“We condemn any association with hate groups and will take immediate action to rectify this situation,” the state Republican Party said in a statement.The party “supports respect for all individuals.”
McClanahan was one of eight people who filed petitions this week to run in the Republican primary for governor.
He once described himself as a “pro-white, knightly, political prisoner activist dedicated to traditional Christian values.” He has been photographed with KKK leaders and doing the Sieg Heil salute alongside white-hooded Klansmen. of a burning cross.
He also said he had been an “honorary member” of the Ku Klux Klan and the Confederate States of America, according to .A newspaper for women published by the Riverfront Times.
“The Missouri Republican Party knew exactly who I was,” he tweeted in response to his initial statement.
“I received several death threats today,” he said, making unsubstantiated claims about other party members and saying party leaders knew he was a “Christian identifyer.” he claimed. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls this “anti-Semitic and racist theology,” but white people are God’s favorites.
“Once again, the Republicans knew exactly who I was. What a bunch of anti-white hypocrites.”
McClanahan previously ran for the Senate in 2022, but lost to the current senator in the Republican primary, receiving just 0.2% of the vote (1,139 votes).Eric Schmidt According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
He then launched a write-in campaign to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but received only one vote. The election results show that.
After its failed federal bid, the Anti-Defamation League Article published It included a photo of McClanahan standing next to two men the organization described as Knights leaders, one of whom appeared to be wearing a KKK insignia.
“Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” is a modern-day branch of the hate group.
Another photo included in the ADL article appears to show McClanahan standing next to a figure wearing KKK robes and a pointy hat at the scene of a 2019 cross burning.
Both men raise their right arms in a Nazi salute.
“Yes, that’s me,” he told the Riverfront Times about the photo of the burning cross, which he said was part of a “Civil Religious Christian Identity Cross Lighting Ceremony Wrongly Listed as Burning a Cross.” It claimed in a previous lawsuit that it had participated.
He said he attended the ceremony after a right-wing unity protester in Charlottesville was sentenced to seven years in prison. According to NBC News.
Still, when asked about the photo by the Post-Dispatch, he insisted he was “not a Nazi.”
“They have a bad image of me,” McClanahan said of ADL. “I don’t believe in Hitler.”
Although he has said he is not a member of the KKK, he said he was “granted one year of honorary membership” in his $5 million lawsuit against the ADL, USA Today reported.
McClanahan told the Post-Dispatch that the members were referring to the League of the South, a self-described “Southern nationalist” group that advocates “cultural and political separation” of former Confederate states. Told.
Former Missouri Congressman Shamed Dogan reposted the photo after filing his candidacy for governor this week. write to x: “I just learned that the first candidate listed on the gubernatorial primary ballot is an avid KKK member running for U.S. Senate. [two] Several years ago, he openly admitted to being a member of the KKK and holding white supremacist beliefs.
“Tell me…are you going to deny this racist loser his application fee?”
