The Tennessee Republican Party is calling for Democrats to denounce comments of Shelby County’s party leader, who on Facebook labeled Republican candidates “demonstrably racist, homophobic and unethical.”
Newsweek reported on the now-deleted comments made Saturday by Corey Strong, chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party. Strong was elected last year to lead the state’s largest county party, which includes Memphis, after the Tennessee Democratic Party “de-certified” the group in 2016 following years of internal strife.
“No matter what the Election Commission has done, the Democratic ticket needs 15k+ non-August Democrats to show up and moderate/suburban Dems to not cross over and vote for the demonstrably racist, homophobic, unethical, and unqualified Republican nominees,” Strong said on Facebook.
Strong’s comments come in the wake of comments made by Maxine Waters where people should oust Trump Administration officials from public spaces.
Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden released the following statement:
Democrats have reached into their failed 2016 playbook and again taken to name calling and outright lying in an attempt to score political points, all the while nothing but continued silence from Tennessee Democratic leaders Phil Bredesen, Karl Dean, Craig Fitzhugh, and Mary Mancini. When it comes to divisive and harmful rhetoric, Tennesseans deserve better and voters deserve to know if the TNDP shares the views of their largest county’s chairman when he calls Republicans ‘demonstrably racist, homophobic, unethical, and unqualified.’ I again call on the Tennessee Democratic Party to condemn this rhetoric.
Strong’s accusations come after he accused election officials of trying to suppress black voters ahead of the August elections, Newsweek said. Strong condemned the Election Commission’s decision to open the Agricenter International polling location during the first five days of the early voting process because the suburban location is far from urban black voters and will skew heavily Republican.
