Black Lives Matter
Reuters Connect

The Latino Community Roundtable recently called for Ted Howze to stop campaigning for California's 10th Congressional District over provocative comments on his social media accounts that denigrate the Black Lives Matter movement, Muslims, Latinos, and others.

The roundtable last week came out with a news release "calling for Howze to leave the race, and for the local officials who endorsed him" to withdraw their support and "denounce the hateful statements."

The roundtable has been working for the improvement of Stanislaus County Latinos' social, economic, and political wellbeing.

In the same news release, the roundtable stated that as leaders in their community, they strongly denounce hate speech that particularly "degrades Latinos or any other identity group."

The news release further stated that the insulting statements which Howze made on his social media accounts for the past several years now are quite worrying, not to mention the fact that it does not reflect the diversity and values of the district he is seeking to represent.

Hispanics and Latinos Make up Half of the Population

Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak and Modesto Mayor Ted Brandvold were reportedly among the local leaders who have given Howze's endorsements. However, both leaders have not yet responded to requests for comment on this issue.

Meanwhile, the roundtable release indicates that Hispanics and Latinos make up about 50 percent of the population of the county, and based on the 2010 Census, over 20 percent of the residents of the county were said to be "born outside the US."

Even Howze himself has not yet responded to several requests to comment on the issue. His campaign has hinted that the comments were not made by Howze himself but by those known to him who have access to his social media accounts.

However, a recent statement from Howze's campaign indicated that he was on record a couple of weeks ago, apologizing to any individual who might have been offended by the social media posts.

Taking Full Responsibility

Reports said Howze has committed to taking full responsibility in closely watching his social media pages, as well as those who have had access to it several years back. He is also allegedly considering taking legal action.

The posts on Facebook and Twitter over the period from 2016 until 2018 reportedly included one asking if Muslims can ever be ideal American citizens, and a statement saying the Dreamers' parents -- immigrants who arrived in the US as children, "are criminals and need to return to Mexico." He also supposedly compared the DREAMers to pedophiles.

One of the posts about "Black Lives Matter" allegedly said that "as a culture, 95 percent of you vote in lockstep" for the same political party which, he said, has held the blacks as physical slaves and presently wish to keep them as "political slaves" who are not able to impact any actual change for improvement.

Politico was the first to come out with the story about Howze's social media statements several weeks later when more posts came out.

At 53, Howze is a doctor of large animals and an ex-councilman in Turlock. A Republican, he is challenging US Rep. Josh Harder for the elections in November to become a representative for the southern San Joaquin counties and the Stanislaus in Congress.

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