Another setback to the GOP’s stated mission of reaching out to women and minorities.
An Illinois Republican official resigned Thursday, after writing a vicious attack on a biracial, female congressional candidate–calling her the “love child” of the Democratic National Committee, destined to work for “some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires.”
The target was Erika Harold, a former Miss America and Harvard Law graduate who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 13th congressional district in central Illinois.
Montgomery County GOP Chairman Jim Allen referred to Harold as “miss queen,” and said that she was “being used like a street walker,” whose “pimps are the DEMOCRAT PARTY and RINO REPUBLICANS.” Allen sent the email to the conservative website Republican News Watch, which posted the text in full and called it a “racist rant.”
Allen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Harold’s opponent, incumbent Republican Rep. Rodney Davis, disavowed Allen’s remarks and removed his name from the list of supporters on the Davis campaign website, following questioning from the Post-Dispatch.
Jack Dorgan, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, said that he “accepted the resignation of Jim Allen as Montgomery County chairman” in a statement posted on the state GOP’s Facebook page.
“These types of offensive and inappropriate remarks have no place in our Republican Party,” said Dorgan.
Dorgan was joined in his criticism by other GOP officials, who have acknowledged the need to improve their party’s standing with women and minority voters. In a 100-page autopsy report on the GOP’s 2012 loss, the RNC pledged $10 million to improving minority outreach.
“The astonishingly offensive views expressed by Chairman Allen have absolutely no place among the leaders of our party at any level,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus. “His behavior is inexcusable and must not be tolerated.”
Below is the full text of Chairman Allen’s email, as published by Republican News Watch:
“Rodney Davis will win and the love child of the D.N.C. will be back in S—cago by May of 2014 working for some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires.
The truth is Nancy Pelosi and the DEMOCRAT party want this seat. So they called RINO Timmy Johnson to be their pack mule and get little queen to run.
Ann Callis gets a free ride through a primary and Rodney Davis has a battle.
The little queen touts her abstinence and she won the crown because she got bullied in school,,,boohoo..kids are cruel, life sucks and you move on..Now, miss queen is being used like a street walker and her pimps are the DEMOCRAT PARTY and RINO REPUBLICANS…These pimps want something they can’t get,,, the seat held by a conservative REPUBLICAN Rodney Davis and Nancy Pelosi can’t stand it..
Little Queenie and Nancy Pelosi have so much in common but the one thing that stands out the most.. both are FORMER QUEENS, their crowns are tarnished and time has run out on the both of them..”
Emma Margolin
Emma Margolin is a reporter at MSNBC.com.