A billboard with an anti-liberal message is getting taken down, after it stirred up a large amount of backlash and media coverage.
“Liberals,” reads the billboard, “Please continue on I-40 until you have left our GREAT STATE OF TEXAS.”
Kyle Mccallie took a photo of the billboard and posted it to Facebook with the caption “I like it!” It has since been shared over 15,000 times on Facebook.
Randy Burkett, owner of the company that put up the sign, Burkett Outdoor Advertising, said the client was an individual, not an organization. Burkett’s company website crashed Wednesday after a dramatic increase in web traffic. He told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram he plans to take down the sign because of all the attention it received, much of it negative.
“I was shocked that it traveled that fast,” Burkett said. “I believe in free speech, but this country is divided enough as it is. I’ve spoken with the client, and he’s agreed that it should come down. We’ll be reimbursing him.”
Twenty-five-year-old Mccallie said he noticed the sign Tuesday on his way to work. He told USA Today it is located on Interstate 40 East near Vega, Texas, which is about 35 miles from the New Mexico border and about an hour from his hometown.
Texas is one of the nation’s most conservative states. The state has had two Republican U.S. senators since 1993 and has had a Republican governor since 1995. The Republican candidate in presidential elections has received Texas’s electoral votes since 1980, according to the Texas secretary of state.
