Rep. Mia Love said Monday she would be returning donations made to her campaign from the alleged white supremacist whose writings inspired Charleston shooter Dylann Roof.
The Utah Republican, who became the first black GOP woman elected to Congress last fall, told CNN she will return $1,000 in campaign donations from Earl Holt, the president of the Council of Conservative Citizens.
Roof, the Charleston church massacre shooter, credited Holt for helping radicalize him against black people in a manifesto posted on his alleged personal website. According to The Guardian, Holt has given more than $60,000 to Republican campaign funds since 2010, including those run by presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum.
CNN said Holt has also given money to Rep. Allen West, the black former GOP House member from Florida.
The Council of Concerned Citizens is identified as a hate group by The Southern Poverty Law Center. Holt’s group denounced Roof’s shooting, which left nine churchgoers dead at a historically black church in South Carolina, but Holt has written that Roof had “legitimate grievances.”
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Monday the donations he got from Holt would be given to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund to assist families of the victims of last week’s shooting. Donations made to Cruz will be returned immediately, a spokesman said Monday.
