Scott D. Rhodes, the Idaho man responsible for a series of baldly racist robocalls, is making headlines with another—this time to Georgia voters ahead of tomorrow’s midterm elections.
The latest robocalls target Stacey Abrams, the Democratic Party’s nominee for Georgia governor. Abrams is the latest to be targeted by robocalls dispatched by Rhodes’ neo-Nazi propaganda operation, Road to Power. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Rhodes has been linked “to the distribution of white supremacist propaganda at Sandpoint (Idaho) High School, harassment of a Sandpoint resident, and threatening, anti-Semitic calls that included recordings of Hitler.” As we reported in May, Road to Power’s programming represents “a variety of white nationalists that do not feel compelled to conceal their vitriolic worldview in the slightest.”
The Washington Post’s Celeve R. Wootson Jr. describes the calls targeting Abrams as comprising “nearly 60 seconds of racism coupled with a dash of anti-Semitism.” Audio of the call was shared on Facebook by an account that appears to belong to a pro-Abrams activist.
Prior calls have targeted Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum in Florida, others have sought support for Patrick Little and John Fitzgerald, both unabashed neo-Nazis who ran for public office. Other Road to Power calls have directed more generalized racism at black and Latino Americans.
“Robocalls are a relatively low-cost and easy means of communicating hate and allow callers to mask their identity while reaching a wide audience,” the Anti-Defamation League wrote of Rhodes’ calls last month.
The gubernatorial races for Gillum and Abrams, who are both African American, have received national media attention for their Republican opponents’ coded bigotry and ties to known racists.
Speaking of Florida’s gubernatorial election, Ron DeSantis, Gillum’s opponent, cautioned voters on national television that they shouldn’t “monkey this up” by electing Gillum, and spoke at conferences featuring outright racists. DeSantis also refused to return money to a wealthy donor who called Barack Obama a “Muslim nigger” online, and maintained campaign connections to hate groups. Brian Kemp, who is challenging Abrams, received backlash for posing with a known white nationalist who has threatened to kill black women and children. Kemp has also gone out of his way to toy with voter rolls in Georgia to protect a white political rule by suppressing non-white voters.
Both DeSantis and Kemp have both denounced the robocalls against their opponents.
