Jewish Dems: Anti-Semite Nehlen is Wisconsin Republican front-runner after Ryan drops out

WASHINGTON – Following Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s announcement Wednesday that he would not seek re-election to Congress, the Jewish Democratic Council of America issued the following statement:

Paul Nehlen is an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist who has tweeted that Jews will “burn in hell,” is fond of the hashtag #itsokaytobewhite, and urged prominent Jewish commentator John Podhoretz to “eat a bullet” and “self-deport.”

Until today, he was running to unseat Speaker of the House Paul Ryan as representative for Wisconsin’s 1st District in U.S. Congress, and was a longshot at best, garnering 12 percent of the primary vote two years ago. After a year and a half of appeasing an erratic, dangerous president and serving a dysfunctional administration, Ryan has decided to abandon his remaining colleagues and leave an avowed anti-Semite as his party’s current front-runner in his congressional district. It’s a sad day for Republicans and Republican Jews.

Let that sink in: The Republican Party’s strongest—if only—candidate in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District is an open anti-Semite. Paul Nehlen’s Twitter account was shut down in February for the dissemination of hate speech. And, come November, he could be a member of the U.S. Congress.

We can’t let that happen.

Ryan has signaled even he now agrees this will be a watershed election for Democrats. Even so, we need to make sure it won’t be a watershed election for anti-Semites, too. We call on the Republican Party to strongly disavow Paul Nehlen and on all Republicans to condemn Nehlen and his candidacy. Anti-Semitic candidates must not be tolerated.

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