Modesto-Stanislaus NAACP calls for Ted Howze to quit election over social media posts
The NAACP’s Modesto-Stanislaus branch is calling for Ted Howze to drop out of the election for California’s 10th Congressional District in the wake of the most recent discovery of more inflammatory posts on his social media accounts, including ones denigrating immigrants, Muslims and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Howze is a large-animal veterinarian and former Turlock councilman. The Republican is challenging U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock, in the November election to represent Stanislaus and southern San Joaquin counties.
The local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People posted a news release Saturday night on its Facebook page. The release said the NAACP is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates but is following its mission — which includes the equality of all rights for all people and the elimination of racial hatred and racial discrimination — in calling for Howze to drop out.
“The discriminatory rhetoric displayed on Mr. Howze’s social media sites against Mexican immigrants, Muslims, Black Lives Matters, and massacre survivors (is) unacceptable, condemnable and in our opinion, disqualifying to serve in any capacity in our diverse county,” the release states.
The release stated the posts, tweets and retweets were not isolated incidents, spanned more than two years and “add fuel to an already raging fire of bigotry that has besieged our nation.”
Howze ‘exploring legal action’
Howze, 53, did not respond Sunday to a request for comment. But his campaign issued a statement:
“Dr. Howze was on record two weeks ago apologizing to anyone who might be offended by the posts placed on his social media. He took full responsibility for not monitoring those pages and those with access several years ago, and is exploring legal action. The sentiments in question obviously do not reflect the thoughts or actions of a dedicated community leader who has worked with the diverse communities for decades.”
This statement is the most the campaign has said about the latest posts. Howze has not spoken with The Bee regarding this issue despite several requests from the newspaper in recent weeks.
The website Politico broke the story Wednesday about these posts. It reported reviewing at least a dozen on Howze’s Facebook account over two years.
Politico said the posts included ones from 2016 in which Howze compared the so-called Dreamers, the immigrants who came here as young children, to pedophiles, claimed Muslims could not be good American citizens and said of the Black Lives Matter movement, “as a culture, 95% percent of you vote in lock step for the same political party who held you as physical slaves and now wish to keep you as political slaves ... .”
Mocks Parkland High survivor
Politico first wrote about posts on Howze’s social media May 6 based on screenshots a Democratic operative had taken of Howze’s social media from January 2017 to March 2018. They include: The founder of Islam was a rapist and pedophile. The parents of the Dreamers are criminals and should be sent back to Mexico. One retweet mocks a survivor of the Parkland High School shooting, in which 17 people were killed.
The Democratic operative said he took the screenshots of Howze’s Facebook and Twitter posts, tweets and retweets when Howze started his first run for Congress in March 2018. The operative said that within a few hours, the Twitter account had been deleted and the Facebook posts had been deleted or removed from public view.
The screenshots did not surface until recently when Politico obtained them. They are from 2017 and 2018. The screenshots in the most recent Politico story are from 2016.
Politico reported the inflammatory posts were interspersed with ones about family life, including attending sporting events, holiday celebrations and vacations.
When the first stories came out in early May, Howze’s campaign manager told The Bee that the posts, tweets and retweets were made by people who had access to Howze’s social media accounts.
“People he (Howze) knew, people he was familiar with made these comments (and retweets),” the manager said. “He’s very upset. This is not who he is. He really is disgusted by the whole thing.” The manager would not say who those people were.
Howze campaign claims ‘fake news’
Politico reported last week that Howze’s campaign would not comment on its most recent story but issued this statement: “It’s the policy of the campaign to not comment on fake news or redundant stories by the same insider online blog.” The campaign also would not answer questions from The Bee.
But “Ted Howze for Congress” posted this Thursday on Facebook: “The maliciously false attacks on our campaign based on old social media posts being attributed to me are Fake News. They do not resemble anything close to my personal words or actions exhibited during my decades-long record of service in the Central Valley.
“The Congressional Primary of 2018 was a extremely competitive race, and no mention of any such derogatory posts we ever made. We are under attack by national Democrats and their left-wing media because our campaign is a real threat to beat Josh Harder.”
Howze came in a third in the 2018 primary for the California Congressional District 10 seat behind Harder and longtime U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock. Harder then went on to beat Denham in the November election that year.
Howze has lost the endorsements of Republicans since the latest coverage. For instance, the California Republican Party and the National Republican Congressional Committee have pulled their endorsements, as have several local Republican officials, though other local Republicans have said they continue to support Howze. And the California College Republicans issued a letter Saturday reaffirming its support.
It read in part: “Despite the backlash Howze has received in recent days over alleged social media posts from several years ago, we believe in his character and that a conservative agenda in Congress is superior to the Democrat agenda.”
Howze’s campaign concluded its Sunday statement with: “Dr. Howze is heartened and inspired by the outpouring of public and private words of support he’s received over the last several weeks. These ongoing attacks are a deliberate distraction by political opponents of Dr. Howze because he continues to be a conservative first, and a threat to the corrupt establishment and political class.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 2:19 PM.
