Submitted by Carl Gibson
Editor’s note: This headline has been updated.
Carl Baxter — a supporter of former President Donald Trump and a Republican activist in Fort Myers, Florida — is suing a major Republican group and accusing its leadership of using racist language.
According to local ABC affiliate WZVN, Baxter is suing Americans for Prosperity (AFP), alleging his supervisor used racially insensitive language during recent canvassing operation. Baxter’s suit claims that while on a call with an AFP staffer, she repeatedly referred to Baxter, who is Black, as “a slave.”
“I know you are doing the work and I can see the doors that you are hitting on my iPad on my side. At least you are working as a slave (sarcastically) but at least you are getting paid, many slaves today do get paid, many used to never get paid,” she is accused of saying. “Are you a slave?”
Baxter, who is the president of the Republican Club of North and East Fort Myers, is also accusing another AFP member of attempted bribery. While the two were at a restaurant in downtown Fort Myers, an unnamed AFP deputy grassroots director offered him “$500 in bribe money to provide ‘dirt’ on Cape Coral city council member Patty Cummings.” Baxter declined the money.
James Muwakkil, who is the president of the Lee County, Florida branch of the NAACP, said that given Baxter’s reputation as a “non-reactionary person,” his lawsuit likely has merit.
“The surprise is that we’re still having to fight these battles that should’ve been won way back when the Civil War ended,” Muwakkil told WZVN.
Other prominent Republican activists in the area are already distancing themselves from AFP. Lee County Republican Party executive committee member Elaine Green told the outlet that the group has since been “taken over” by an unwelcome faction of the GOP.
“My husband and I used to make big donations to Americans for Prosperity,” Green said. “They are the original open borders, people in Chamber of Commerce, everything opposite of what we want… Less government less intrusion.”
AFP — which is funded in large part by far-right billionaire Charles Koch — has faced controversy elsewhere in this election cycle. After the group endorsed former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, one of the group’s top officials in New Hampshire revolted, even threatening to vote for President Joe Biden out of protest.
The AFP members named in the suit did not offer comment.
