Sponsor of Ohio's Six-Week Abortion Ban Believes Drag Queens, Immigrants Are to Blame for Mass Shootings

Shortly after a gunman shot and killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio Republican State Representative Candice Keller decided to publicly blame the mass shooting on a variety of culprits—from drag queens to immigrants to “snowflakes.” In short, everything but guns.

It’s quite a remarkable list she pulled together, which she shared in a Facebook post. While the post is no longer accessible on her profile page, here’s what she wrote, according to screenshots:

After every mass shooting, the liberals start the blame game. Why not place the blame where it belongs?

The breakdown of the traditional American family (thank you, transgender, homosexual marriage, and drag queen advocates); fatherlessness, a subject no one discusses or believes is relevant; the ignoring of violent video games; the relaxing of laws against criminals (open borders); the acceptance of recreational marijuana; failed school policies (hello, parents who defend misbehaving students); disrespect to law enforcement (thank you, Obama); hatred of our veterans (thank you, professional athletes who hate our flag and National Anthem); the Dem Congress, many members whom are openly anti-Semitic; the culture, which totally ignores the importance of God and the church (until they elect a President); state officeholders, who have no interest whatsoever in learning about our Constitution and the Second Amendment; and snowflakes, who can’t accept a duly-elected President.

She ended this impressive rant by writing, “Did I forget anybody? The list is long. And the fury will continue.” You did not, in fact, forget anybody, Candice!

Keller’s post was so offensive that the chair of the state’s Republican Party Jane Timken called on Keller to resign. “While our nation was in utter shock over the acts of violence in El Paso and Dayton, Republican State Representative Candice Keller took to social media to state why she thought these acts were happening,” Timken wrote in a statement to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Candice Keller’s Facebook post was shocking and utterly unjustifiable. Our nation is reeling from these senseless acts of violence and public servants should be working to bring our communities together, not promoting divisiveness.”

Even Keller’s fellow racists were alarmed. “It’s an embarrassment. It’s shameful. It does not reflect our party, our community, or the people who are hurting right now,” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, a man who has put up anti-immigrant billboards in the past, said to the Washington Post. “She only left out people who look like her.”

This is, of course, not the first time Keller has made incredibly dumb and incredibly bigoted comments in response to mass shootings. In 2018, shortly after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, she spoke at a pro-gun rally and had this to say: “A month ago, we weren’t really having this conversation, and all of a sudden a 15-year-old on television, who would just as soon be eating Doritos and playing video games, wants to tell me that my constitution needs to be changed. Really?”

Prior to taking this brave stance on gun violence, Keller, who is also the executive director of an anti-abortion Christian crisis pregnancy center, was best known for sponsoring Ohio’s six-week abortion ban and in 2017, comparing Planned Parenthood to Nazis. Earlier this year, the Butler County Democratic Party filed a complaint against Keller, alleging that she violated ethics rules when she sponsored a bill that would directly benefit crisis pregnancy centers like the one that she runs.