California GOP leader Harmeet Dhillon is going on the offensive against what she has labeled “bigoted attacks on my faith.”
The Sikh American former vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party is running against current Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel for her position.
The election will be held January 27.
“Threat incoming today,” she tweeted Monday on Martin Luther King Day. “One of Ronna’s state chair supporters responded to my message about Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy by threatening me with consequences if I didn’t make the “annoying” text messages from voters stop (No one on my team has asked anyone to text members)
She want on to say “To be very clear, no amount of threats to me or my team, or bigoted attacks on my faith traceable directly to associates of the chair, will deter me from advancing positive change at the RNC, which includes new standards of accountability, transparency, integrity, and decency.”
The latest volley comes just days after Politico reported that opponents of Dhillon have launched a whisper campaign against her Sikh faith. The article quoted two supporters of Dhillon who said they were approached by McDaniel supporters who brought up concerns about Dhillon’s religion.
McDaniel herself released a statement saying she “wholeheartedly condemn[s] religious bigotry in any form. We are the party of faith, family and freedom, and these attacks have no place in our party or our politics.”
McDaniel is a member of the Mormon faith and has preached coalition-building with both ethnic and religious minority groups.
“The last thing I want to see is anyone attacked for their faith,” said Solomon Yue, a Republican leader from Oregon told Politico. “And now my own party, a fellow RNC member, has attacked an Asian American running for RNC chairman. This is totally unacceptable in my book. If anybody still believes in freedom and First Amendment rights, they’ve got to stand up and talk about this and stop it.”
However, Republican leaders in Alabama say they are shocked by accusations there is a whisper campaign against Dhillon.
“We had not heard anything about her faith or an issue with it, before or after Saturday’s meeting,” the spokeswoman said to Alabama.com.
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