WASHINGTON (JTA) — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley asked a campaign adviser to step down after Jewish Democrats called attention to the adviser’s affiliation to a group that opposes “race mixing.”
The National Jewish Democratic Council drew attention to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s noting that Roan Garcia-Quintana, a board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, also was one of 164 members of Haley’s 2014 reelection committee.
“There is no place for racially divisive rhetoric in the politics or governance of South Carolina, and Governor Haley has no tolerance for it,” Haley’s campaign manager, Tim Pearson, told the Charleston Post and Courier on Sunday.
On its statement of principles, the council says it opposes “all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called ‘affirmative action’ and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.”
The Anti-Defamation League has noted that the council has hosted anti-Semitic speakers.
