In a weekend post on Instagram, Texas Democrat Maureen Galindo, who is running to represent the newly redrawn 35th Congressional District, vowed to turn the Karnes ICE Detention Center, located just outside of San Antonio, “into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.”
“It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists,” she added.
Galindo’s stunning antisemitic comments, first reported Tuesday by San Antonio Current writer Michael Karlis, have drawn bipartisan outrage.
Galindo, a sex therapist and housing activist, finished ahead of her primary opponent, Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia, in the March primary by a margin of 29.2% to 27.02%. Because neither candidate met the 50% threshold, a runoff will be held on May 26.
According to Karlis, she has accused Garcia of “participating in a human trafficking conspiracy orchestrated by billionaire zionist Jews” and “pledged during a Texas Public Radio interview to put Garcia on trial for treason.”
In the video below, posted by Washington Free Beacon writer Jon Levine earlier this month, she attacked “‘Jews who own Hollywood’ as members of ‘the Synagogue of Satan’ and said she won’t take Israeli ‘Blood money.'”
Galindo’s Facebook page is littered with inflammatory and antisemitic captions, such as: “Israel funded politicians are aiding Israel with the materials to terrorize America,” “ICE trains with Israel’s terrorist military, and “Johnny Garcia and all American candidates and elected officials who took money from Israel will be tried for TREASON.”
Yet, despite these posts, she shamelessly declared, “The thing I’m most proud of about my campaign is making democracy feel possible again!!”
In an interview with Texas Public Radio last week, Galindo denied allegations of antisemitism while continuing to voice opposition to what she described as “Zionist Jews.” She said:
I’m not antisemitic. In fact my last serious relationship was with a Jewish man. I’m against Zionist Jews. When I said that the Jews who own Hollywood are doing this, do all Jews own Hollywood? No. The Zionist Jews do. The Zionist Jews own our media, our banks and all of our politicians.
Naturally, Democrats are distancing themselves from Galindo’s vile rhetoric. Professor Jacobson noted that while “Democrats are running for the hills” over this, “it is exactly what they’ve been stoking” with their own political messaging. He’s right.
At any rate, in a Tuesday post on X, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) wrote, “First current political candidate suggests concentration camps for American Jews. This should be national news!” He also called on national Democratic leaders to “call this out immediately.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Galindo’s remarks were “absolutely disgusting” and “this bigoted garbage and antisemitism should be nowhere near our politics.” She called on Texas Democrats to support Garcia.
She added that the “donors behind the Republican super PAC funding her should be exposed.”
In a joint statement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene went further in assigning blame to GOP leadership. They wrote:
House Republican leadership must immediately cease propping up this antisemitic candidacy, pull spending in the race and forcefully condemn these comments. This vile language by her is disqualifying and has no place in America politics, and certainly not in the Democratic Party. To embrace and uplift a fringe candidate with antisemitic — and extremely dangerous — rhetoric and views in order to win an election is beyond the pale.
Funny — where do they think Republicans got this idea?
The clearest example came during the 2022 midterm cycle, when Democratic groups and candidates spent heavily to boost far-right, Trump-aligned Republicans in GOP primaries, believing they would be the easiest to defeat in the general election. And in many cases, they were correct.
In remarks to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico said, “This antisemitic rhetoric has no place in our politics. We need leadership in both parties willing to stand up and call out hate wherever it rears its ugly head.” Talarico’s campaign confirmed to Fox News that “he will not stump for Galindo if she wins the nomination.”
Democrats must be asked why they are only now condemning Galindo for her antisemitic tropes.
Although Galindo’s most recent round of hateful statements came to national attention on Tuesday, her campaign has been marked by repeated antisemitic smears. Texas Public Radio and The Texas Tribune both described the ICE-facility comments as part of a broader pattern of bigoted remarks throughout her campaign.
And while few Democrats go quite as far as Galindo did, many have come very close. After AIPAC congratulated Ed Gallrein for his win over incumbent (and antisemite) Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s Republican congressional primary on X, Rhode Island state representative Enrique Sanchez, a Democrat, responded, “Go f*** yourselves. Your end will come soon f***ers.”
Classy guy.
While I haven’t been able to find any recent polling for this race, the newly redrawn district, currently represented by Democrat Greg Casar, is widely expected to flip to Republicans in November.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn.
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