There was recently a flurry of media coverage about the potential U.S. Senate candidacy of a local millionaire’s kid named Robert Ritchie (known professionally for playing the role of working-class musician Kid Rock), a seat up for election in 2018 and currently held by an actual advocate for working people, Democrat Debbie Stabenow. Master Ritchie has as yet not ruled out a run for the seat, but generic businesswomen and Trump state campaign chair Lena Epstein has already declared for the Senate race. Given the recent tragic events in Charlottesville, Va, you would assume that an active, nominally serious candidate for a U.S. Senate seat would avoid associating herself with white nationalists and other toxic racists, at the very least on social media where virtually anyone could notice.
You would be wrong.
If her Twitter account is any indication at all, Lena Epstein may be sympatico with some truly vile bigots. Here’s a screenshot of Epstein’s Twitter likes, courtesy of MDP Chair Brandon Dillon:
Yup, that’s David fuckin’ Duke, who used to be the one public figure that even the nuttiest right-wing Republican would denounce outright. The tweet that Epstein liked was a noxious defense by Duke of the Alt-Right. Also note Epstein’s “like” of notorious Twitter white nationalist “Baked Alaska” Tim Gionet and his approval of Trump’s condemnation of “alt-left” Antifa.
Epstein claims that she was hacked, of course, though the likes stayed on her page for hours after this alleged intrusion, pretty much until she was called out on them. But people smelled blood and kept digging (and are still digging as we speak) Sure enough, it turns out that this wasn’t a one off comment that she liked; Epstein was actually following David Duke on Twitter:
Associating with these kinds of disgusting people, even on social media, shows incredibly poor judgement. Giving them positive affirmation of any kind is outright disqualifying for a candidate of any party political party or for any elected office. If Lena Epstein’s account was hacked, then she should cooperate fully with Twitter and provide the public with evidence that her account was compromised. If not, then the State of Michigan deserves better than to be represented by someone with her appalling lack of character.