An Independent candidate for Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional district is causing a stir with a campaign sign that says he wants to “make America white again.”
Rick Tyler confirmed to local TV station WRCB that the billboard bearing that slogan is his.
He has no hatred for “people of color,” Tyler told WRCB Wednesday, but rather believes America should go back to a “1960s, ‘Ozzie and Harriet,’ ‘Leave it to Beaver’ time when there were no break-ins; no violent crime; no mass immigration.”
There is also a second Tyler sign causing controversy in Polk County. That one shows the White House surrounded by Confederate flags with the famous Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. quote “I have a dream” written on it.
“I respect their right to have an opinion,” Tyler said of anyone who dislikes his signs. “I believe the majority of the people in the county like it.”
Tyler is running to replace incumbent Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican who running for re-election. Three Democrats are vying for the Democratic nomination, while Tyler has two other Independent candidates to battle.
Tennessee’s primary election is August 4, followed by the November 8 general election.
