As local news sources flounder across the United States, it’s becoming harder and harder to vet the candidates we send to local office.
Take the town of Enid, Oklahoma for example. Many voters who elected Judd Blevins to the city council last year say they had no idea about his ties to white nationalists. Only once he was on the council did they learn he had marched in Charlottesville and was a member of a now defunct white supremacist organization known as Identity Evropa.
The progressive website Right Wing Watch had exposed Blevins back in 2019, but it’s not a publication that gets a lot of traction in a place like Enid. Just five weeks before the election, the local Enid News & Eagle did run a story about Blevins being “accused of white nationalist ties.” But he was able to wave it off, calling the accusations “fake news.”
After Blevins won – by just 36 votes – a group of residents made it their mission to bring his history to light. They formed the Enid Social Justice Committee and showed up to council meetings to put him on the spot. When Blevins refused to apologize for his past associations, they launched a recall effort against him.
That effort succeeded Tuesday. Voters ousted Blevins by a 20-point margin and selected Cheryl Patterson, a longtime church youth leader and grandmother, to replace him.
It was a remarkable moment for Enid and its paltry Democratic Party. The recall effort – championed by two Democratic women, Connie Vickers and Nancy Presnall – succeeded despite a 4-to-1 GOP registration advantage.
There’s a lesson here. Get to know your candidates before the election. It’s important.