There’s a popular saying in Spanish that goes: dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres. In English, it translates to, show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are. It basically means that you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep.
That knowledge is essential when an entire political party has openly embraced white supremacist rhetoric and authoritarianism. In order to be better informed of exactly who is asking for our vote, immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice has created a bilingual tool laying out the ties between GOP candidates and known extremists.
“Before we vote this November, we all should know who we are really voting for and if they and their friends have our best interests in mind,” said Show Me Your Friends/Dime spokesperson and America’s Voice Texas-based campaigns manager Mario Carrillo.
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“Besides Yvette Herrell, the initial slate of Republican candidates we are focused on in this campaign have not, to our knowledge, engaged in the same recklessly dangerous rhetoric, but they happily take the support and endorsement of the Republican Party leaders who do,” Carrillo said. The tool focuses on five other southern borderland candidates, including Monica De La Cruz, Cassy Garcia, Mayra Flores, Juan Ciscomani, and incumbent Tony Gonzales.
“The third-ranking House Republican and a key player in the midterm elections, Elise Stefanik, has endorsed all these candidates and has committed to the deadly conspiracy theory about a migrant ‘invasion,’” Carrillo continued. Stefanik last fall echoed white supremacist replacement theory in Facebook advertising.
America’s Voice noted that even after the racist ads were condemned by national press, Stefanik doubled-down and continued running the ads. Just months later, a racist mass murderer who cited this racist theory would go to Buffalo and gun down Black Americans who were just going about their day and shopping for groceries. More recently, Stefanik has been supporting a GOP candidate who claimed Adolf Hitler is “the kind of leader we need.”
It’s not just racist rhetoric, either. The website shows ties between candidates and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is the subject of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation involving a minor.
“The Show Me Your Friends campaign is asking these candidates to refute, reject and denounce the extremism of those in their party who promote these dangerous lies,” America’s Voice said. “Unfortunately, we haven’t seen anything like that from any of the candidates.” The organization says that Ciscomani has “refused to denounce or disagree” with racist “invasion” remarks made by Arizona Republicans Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. Speaking of: You know who hasn’t been with Gosar? His siblings.
“Invasion” rhetoric has been used by a number of racist mass killers, including the Buffalo and El Paso shooters. The Houston Chronicle reported that a dozen Texas Republicans falsely complained of an “invasion” in a letter to President Joe Biden. It was dated May 19, just five days after the Buffalo attack, and featured some of the worst of the worst members of Congress, including Louie Gohmert, Ronny Jackson, and Chip Roy.
“Moving forward, the Show Me Your Friends campaign will continue to monitor and highlight the dangerous and xenophobic ads, tweets, and statements from Republican leaders that mirror and echo the vitriol used by violent extremists and to monitor what, if anything, these Republican candidates in Texas have to say about it,” America’s Voice continued. Click here to view individual videos highlighting each of the named candidates.
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