Washington, DC – Republican Gary Emineth has withdrawn today from the North Dakota senatorial race. This comes after a recent report from CNN regarding a pre-campaign tweet calling for “no more mosques in America.” When questioned in a radio interview, he doubled-down, stating “the bottom line is, a lot of the radicalization that’s turned on in the country and around the world has come out of these mosques….So I see an article and I retweet, ‘no more mosques in America,’ you know, and like, and share. So I retweeted it. So yeah. So what?”
The following is a reaction to Emineth’s withdrawal from Scott Simpson, public advocacy director for Muslim Advocates:
Gary Emineth may have set a new record. His campaign lasted less than two weeks, and he withdrew days after his clear hostility to Muslims made national headlines.May this example serve as a cautionary tale to other candidates nationwide that outlandish bigotry only emboldens hate and is not the signature of a successful campaign. In the past year, embracing anti-Muslim hate groups and rhetoric was an omen for failed candidacies in Alabama, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Texas, and, now, North Dakota.Muslim Advocates is tracking and responding to this type of rhetoric because hate violence against Muslims is now at an all-time high and, according to California State University-San Bernardino, this rhetoric is strongly correlated to increases in hate violence.
It should be noted that Emineth used this excuse on his website that because of Congressman Kevin Cramer’s decision to enter the race, he’s not willing to “take on a popular incumbent who has done much to endear himself to his constituents.”
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