A Texas county’s Democratic Party is refusing to accept the resignation of Lamar County Democratic Party Chairman Gary O’Connor, who announced he would step down after calling Sen. Tim Scott an “oreo with no real principles.”
O’Connor, who is white, made the comment in a Facebook post after the GOP senator’s rebuttal to President Biden’s address to Congress last week.
He later apologized for using the “racist term” against the black South Carolina Republican.
“It was insensitive and I have embarrassed myself and my party by its use,” O’Connor’s statement read.
But the Lamar County Democratic Party followed up with a statement saying they wouldn’t accept his resignation.
“On May 4, 2021, representatives of the Lamar County, Texas Democratic Party met to consider the resignation tendered by Party Chair, Gary O’Connor. Our local Democrats have taken the last few days to reflect upon this incident. After much discussion—especially among our local Black Democrats—we chose not to accept Mr. O’Connor’s resignation,” the party said in a press release, according to MyParisTexas.com.
“Mr. O’Connor has written a public letter of apology to Sen. Tim Scott, and Lamar County Democrats join him in this apology,” the statement added.
The Lamar County Democrats further stated that O’Connor’s racial remark is “incompatible with his core values,” noting that “his life of service, collaboration, and activism for racial justice is well known throughout this community.”
“Lamar County Democrats recommit ourselves to conduct our private conversations and our public social media discussions with anti-racist, pro-reconciling attitudes and language. We strongly condemn bigotry of any kind and will continue our historic efforts to work for justice and equality for all our fellow citizens,” the statement concluded.
Texas GOP Chair Allen West slammed the Democrats' decision.
“The leadership of the Democrat Party says that they're not accepting his resignation, that everything is fine, that he did not have to apologize for calling, a sitting U.S. Senator, a Republican senator, a black senator from South Carolina, an Oreo," West told MRCTV.
"So that's the problem. When you want to talk about institutionalized racism, when you want to talk about the systemic racism and the purveyors thereof - it's the Democrat Party. They've always been. They never voted for the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. They are the party of Jim Crow. They're the party of segregation, of slavery. And now, thanks to the soft bigotry of low expectations, they're the party that sees independent thinking, black men and women as a threat.
"‘Oreo's’, ‘Uncle Tom’s’, ‘house n- word’. You know what I'm talking about. They're the real sellouts- those blacks in the Democrat Party that will allow this type of racism to continue on," he continued. "So stop calling everyone else white supremacists and racists and all of these other things, because you The Lamar County Democrat Party, the Texas Democrat Party, you're the real racists – and I despise you.”