News

House candidate wants to ‘Make America White Again’

by Jesse Byrnes - 06/22/16 1:54 PM ET

An independent candidate running for the U.S. House in Tennessee is raising eyebrows with a campaign sign that reads “Make America White Again.”

Rick Tyler, running for the seat held by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R), told a local NBC affiliate that he doesn’t have hatred in his heart for “people of color.”

{mosads}He said the sign is meant to return America to a “1960s, ‘Ozzie and Harriet,’ ‘Leave it to Beaver’ time when there were no break-ins, no violent crime, no mass immigration.”

Candidate for Congress posts “Make America White Again” billboardhttps://t.co/jCO6ejg0Xg pic.twitter.com/62DzLcxeAG

— KWWL (@KWWL) June 22, 2016

Tyler told a local ABC affiliate that the sign was taken down on Tuesday evening after backlash from area residents.

A local Kiwanis club announced on Facebook it was boycotting a restaurant Tyler owns. Tyler told the ABC affiliate he would start campaigning full-time in the coming months.

The politician’s website was down Wednesday, but news reports cite a page in which Tyler explains his billboard strategy and names the Donald Trump “phenomenon” as a point of “great significance.” He also mentions conservative commentator Ann Coulter and her position on immigration.

“Yes the cunning globalist/Marxist social engineers have succeeded in destroying that great bulwark against statist tyranny the white American super majority. Without its expedited restoration little hope remains for the nation as a whole,” the page reportedly read.

Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has inspired other variations on his “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

Tyler’s website also offered other billboard options with messages including “Fight federal tyranny / Stop the Muslim invasion,” and “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be miscegenators.”

Tyler, who is running to represent Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District, also ran for the U.S. Senate in 2014 and garnered just 0.4 percent of the vote in the general election.

Tags Chuck Fleischmann Donald Trump Tennessee