Emboldened by Trump Win, White Nationalists Seek Office
Image by Getty Images
By Sam Kestenbaum November 11, 2016
In the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential win, some of the white nationalists who rallied around the Trump campaign are seeking elected office.
“I think this will be inevitable, and I think that Trump will have encouraged this,” Jared Taylor, head of the white nationalist website American Renaissance, told Talking Points Memo, “our people will run for school board, city council, mayor, all that I anticipate certainly.”
William Johnson, chair of the white nationalist American Freedom Party and member of the pro-Trump American National super PAC, said the he would be focusing on “getting people into the administration and working within the system.”
Though Trump has struck a somewhat conciliatory note in public statements — calling President Barack Obama a “good man,” with whom he looked forward to working — the president-elect hasn’t yet indicated that he would be reeling back any of his hard-right positions.
According to TPM, civil rights organizations are gearing up for a potential fight. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other advocacy groups are preparing for years of work combatting an invigorated racist right.
“If they find a true home in his administration,” Richard Cohen of the SPLC center told TPM, “that will take some of the wind out of the sails of the violent extremists on the right.”
Cohen added: “If they are shunned by Trump, if they are pushed out, given that he has raised their expectations so high, we could see violence. This rock and hard place are something entirely of his own making.”
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
