Normally, city council races in Marysville, Michigan don’t attract that much attention. But that was before Jean Cramer entered the race.
The 67-year-old shocked attendees of a forum last week when she responded to a question about diversity by saying Marysville should be kept “a white community as much as possible."
“Simply American-born. Put it that way and no foreigners. No,” she added.
Gasps filled the room.
Cramer’s comments were shared around the country. Members of the council responded, with Mayor Kathy Hayman — the daughter of a Syrian immigrant — saying she took Cramer’s words personally.
And then, somehow, it got even worse.
“As long as, how can I put this? What Kathy Hayman doesn't know is that her family is in the wrong," Cramer later told the Port Huron Times. “(A) husband and wife need to be the same race. Same thing with kids. That's how it's been from the beginning of, how can I say, when God created the heaven and the earth. He created Adam and Eve at the same time. But as far as me being against blacks, no I'm not.”
Pressure continued to grow and, on Monday, Cramer announced she was withdrawing from the race. Cramer gave no explanation for why, but we can guess.
Cramer’s racist remarks come at time of great political and racial polarization — and just weeks after President Trump told a group of minority congresswomen to go back to countries of origin.