LANSING —As Republicans meet this week to officially renominate Donald Trump, we must not lose sight of what’s at stake, and who their party is supporting at the state level this November.
Michigan Republicans nominated a number of far-right extremists for the State House this year, including Paul Smith in HD 25. Smith, a former Sterling Heights Councilman who was asked to step down from his post in a Council measure that passed 6-1, has been called “completely unfit to hold public office” by current Sterling Heights Republican Mayor Michael Taylor (Oakland Press, 8/9/12).
According to a column by Chad Selweski in DeadlineDetroit.com in 2015, Smith is “associated with homophobic and racist remarks and once displayed a poster of a bloodied, beheaded President Barack Obama that drew the attention of the Secret Service,” (DeadlineDetroit.com, 6/4/15). According to another Deadline Detroit article dating back to 2012, Smith stated that, “Hitler was a terrible guy but at least he wasn’t a traitor to Germany. Obama is a traitor to America.”
Smith has also called for mass violence against Muslim Americans in an online post during the “debate over a new mosque near Ground Zero in New York City,” according to DeadlineDetroit (DeadlineDetroit.com, 6/4/15). “I can’t repeat what Smith wrote about the Muslim community, but rest assured that it was in line with the extreme, hateful and violent rhetoric that has defined Smith’s public life,” said Lavora Barnes, Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. “It is unacceptable that someone like this might hold office in Michigan. Even local Republicans feel this way. When will the Michigan Republican Party denounce this man?”
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