A Jewish member of the House of Representatives in New Mexico called out an Albuquerque Republican running for an open House seat for a reference made to Adolf Hitler in a fundraising email, comparing Democrats to Nazis, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
Rep. Daymon Ely, member of the House of Representatives, called out House District 20 candidate Michael Hendricks for what Ely explains as comparing the philosophy of the Democratic Party “with an organization that killed 6 million Jews.”
Hendricks had quoted Hitler in comparing the techniques used by his Democratic challenger Meredith Dixon.
According to Hendricks, Dixon has about $90,000 more in campaign spending than he does, enough money to “mail a persuasion piece to every likely voter in the district ten times.” He said that while polls show that he is leading, this forecasts a "real problem."
“What does this mean?” Hendricks wrote. “To paraphrase what Hitler famously said: If you tell a lie loud enough and long enough, people will believe it," SFNM reported.
He said that he "figured a quote from Hitler was fitting since this is exactly the technique used today by the Far Left Radical groups."
Hendricks claimed that he was making a broad generalization about the fact that his campaign was underfunded and the fact that large political action committees put a lot of money into the campaigns of both his and others' campaigns.
Hendricks, an immigration attorney who grew up in central Mexico as the son of Baptist missionaries, according to SFNM, said that Ely had misunderstood him.
“What I learned in the law and what I learned through marriage is that not exactly what you intend to say is always what is taken from something that you say,” Hendricks said.
Hendricks said the quote "was specifically a broad generalization of an idea of using information" used to sway people's emotions, and subsequently their vote, but that he never said Democrats. He noted that his family has Democrats in his family, and that one of his strongest campaign volunteers is a Democrat.
Ely, currently one of two Jewish members in the house, called Hendrick's statement outrageous.
“Even in this toxic political environment, there should be barriers, there should be lines, and they crossed the line in this appeal," Ely said.
Ely said the fact that there are so few Jews in the House makes him sensitive to incidents such as this one. He said that he condones either party using the word Nazi, but since Hendrick's has used it, then he will talk about. He said that “the behavior of Republican Party leaders” during this campaign reminded him, as a Jew, of the Nazis.
“But I have not said anything because I don’t think it is appropriate to compare either party to an ideology that killed 6 million of my people."
Dixon, the aforementioned opponent of Hendricks, said that by referencing Hitler, Hendricks not only demeans his own campaign but also insults the memories of six million Jews. She said that actions like that are what lead to other dangerous actions by others.
Hendricks said that he regretted that Ely took the statement the way he did, and he may even invite Ely to coffee "with a mask on."