Howze, left adrift by national GOP, must explain hateful social media
Ted Howze must come forward and explain himself.
The congressional candidate is no doubt embarrassed that the Republican establishment withdrew its support on Wednesday. News of additional bigoted, racist posts and retweets from Howze’s social media accounts became too much for GOP leaders; Howze (pronounced hows) must lay out for voters why such ugly and vile behavior should not be too much for them, too.
He can start by presenting a clear picture of how this happened — why his posts and retweets belittled the founder of Islam, mocked high school massacre survivors, equated Mexican immigrants with criminals, accused Hillary Clinton of murder, attacked the Black Lives Matter movement, and joked about Muslim men having sex with goats.
No more hiding behind cowardly “I’m such a dummy for letting some unnamed person with nasty opinions pretend to be me” excuses. No more blaming middle-age naiveté, not that anyone believed him the first time he tried that lame excuse. No more blaming an evil conspiracy perpetrated against him by Nancy Pelosi because Howze presents such a formidable challenge.
Stop deflecting blame
No more blaming reporters when they do their jobs, asking tough questions because people deserve answers. No more sending his campaign manager to answer for him when the kitchen gets too hot.
Howze must offer a logical reason for why those extreme views were shared on his accounts up to the moment that he decided to run the first time for high office, in early 2018. Howze, a former Turlock councilman, must explain why most then were deleted.
He must explain why some of his posts — previously blamed on unnamed others — were signed “Ted Howze American Citizen.”
An explanation for the national GOP deciding he’s no longer worthy of their support would be nice, too.
It takes a lot for party bosses to denounce a protégé in this manner, removing Howze from the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Guns” website and canceling the national party’s endorsement. House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy called Howze’s social media content “disappointing and disturbing” in a written comment, adding, “Bigotry and hateful rhetoric — in any form — have no place in the Republican Party.”
Cutting one’s losses and folding isn’t unheard of. In 2018, the NRCC also withdrew support of candidate Seth Grossman in New Jersey after offensive remarks he’d made about Latinos and blacks emerged in media.
Howze losing endorsements
Howze first might want to check with local supporters to see if they’re still in his corner.
When news first broke a couple of weeks ago about his odious social media use, it was easy for Howze’s campaign to send email blasts with unrelated content laden with quotes from local mayors — Modesto’s Ted Brandvold, Oakdale’s J.R. McCarthy, Hughson’s Jeramy Young — because Howze still had party backing at that point. When Politico unveiled a second batch of Howze hate this week, the national party finally waved good bye; some local leaders did the same Thursday.
Arranging a Howze public appearance should not prove difficult. Technology brings us together despite coronavirus isolation. Howze easily can call a virtual town hall meeting. His incumbent opponent, Democrat Josh Harder, has hosted nine telephone town halls, five Facebook Live town halls, and two webinars, in addition to 18 in-person town halls before the COVID-19 pandemic — all since his November 2018 election, answering questions at every one.
This spectacle has become Ted’s not-so-excellent adventure. Unless Howze stops hiding behind campaign spokesmen and fully explains himself, he deserves the same level of support from Stanislaus and San Joaquin voters as his own national party is giving him. None.