Brian Kemp, the Republican Georgia Secretary of State running for governor against African-American Democrat Stacey Abrams, has already earned a reputation as a ballot-suppressing racist due to his purging of Black voters at a rate that far exceeds the percentage of white people removed from the state’s electorate in his interest-conflicted role as the supervisor of Georgia’s elections.
Kemp naturally denies all the underhanded behavior that has engendered the substantialrightful invective hurled his way, but his denials have been rendered all but worthless by his literal embrace of a notorious white supremacist who has plagued the internet with his calls for the murder of Black Lives Matter protestors.
Kemp not only allowed the openly racist James Stachowiak to broadcast his hate-filled propaganda on his Periscope channel from a Kemp campaign rally, he took a selfie with the deplorable Stachowiak, smiling and giving a thumbs up, while the bigoted malice-monger wore an anti-Muslim t-shirt.
Mr. Kemp and his campaign saw no problem with this known white supremacist's presence at their campaign event and they so no problem with his Islamophobic t-shirt. In fact, they seemed to love the guy throughout the 25 minutes that he filmed on Periscope.
— Georgia Democrat (@GeorgiaDemocrat) October 26, 2018
You can tell the character of a person by the company they keep, and Kemp is telling us that his character is completely undeserving of any role in government whatsoever. Stachowiak is a former certified “peace officer” and public safety officer at the former Augusta State University who had his certification revoked after a misconduct investigation and who was arrested for falsely accusing a man of terrorism on social networking sites.
To give you an idea of just how repulsive a person Stachowiak is, here is a video he posted threatening Black Lives Matters protestors last year.
KILL BLACK WOMEN AND CHILDREN?
His name is James J. Stachowiak.
Here's his Facebook: https://t.co/qJnDKj123R
Report him. Find him. pic.twitter.com/5fgPdCalwd
— dirtbag (@andiextx) August 20, 2017
He has also been reported to show up at campaign rallies for Kemp’s opponent Stacey Abrams to disrupt them with racist slurs and violent threats.
https://twitter.com/TheWayWithAnoa/status/1036310702292643840
8 Years Active Duty Air Force…the uniform didn’t protect me from racism, discrimination or bigotry then and my Veteran status doesn’t protect me now #VeteransForKaepernick #youcantspeakforUS #Nike pic.twitter.com/ylyfhgCFyt
— J. Jamison (@MrsJSJamison) September 5, 2018
That a candidate for governor in Georgia in the 21st century not only openly associates themselves with neo-Nazi supporters like Stachowiak but actively embraces them tells you all you need to know about Kemp. Georgia voters need to do everything they can to elect Stacey Abrams, fight his campaign of voter suppression, and permanently remove him from the Georgia political landscape.
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Original reporting by Jason Johnson at The Root