Az GOP candidate Vince Leach jokes about feeding dogs to Haitians

A GOP candidate whose state Senate race could determine which party controls the legislature
embraced a racist lie demonizing a group of legal immigrants, telling a
room of gay Republicans last month that Pima County’s stray dogs would
be fed to Haitian people if Democrats win elections.

Vince Leach made the comment
at a Log Cabin Republican meeting in Pima County on Sept. 22. The
former state senator, who defeated Sen. Justine Wadsack in the July GOP
primary, made the comment in the midst of a back-and-forth between
Republican legislative candidates and the crowd.

“At the end of the day I want every
Republican up and down the ballot,” Rep. Cory McGarr, R-Tucson, told the
crowd. That includes even insignificant races, and would apply to the
job of “dog-catcher,” a position that isn’t elected in Arizona.

But if it were, McGarr said, Republicans would need to win the post because “I’m sure the Democrats would screw it up.”

Some in the audience engaged with
McGarr’s comment, shouting out that Democrats would “set them all free,”
prompting laughs from the audience and the candidates there to speak to
them.

“You’d be racist to catch them,” McGarr retorted, prompting more ideas from the audience.

That’s when Leach entered the conversation. “They’d feed ‘em to the Haitians,” he said.

McGarr appeared briefly taken aback
by the comment, and several audience members were audibly uncomfortable.
Leach leaned into his attempt at humor, adding, “I’m here all week.”

Leach’s comments stem from a conspiracy theory that was initially spread by neo-Nazis
in the town of Springfield, Ohio, in an attempt to demonize Haitian
immigrants in the community. Since then, the false claim has been spread
across the right-wing media ecosystem, where it was embraced by Ohio
Sen. J.D. Vance, the vice presidential nominee for the Republicans, and
later being promoted by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

In the weeks following the former President’s boosting of the claim, Arizona Republicans have fully embraced it. While appearing on Real America with Dan Ball,
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Kari Lake claimed that “cities wouldn’t
want to confirm” the false rumor when responding to Ball claiming that
pets were being “barbecued” in Ohio.

“Yeah, well, and a lot of cities
wouldn’t want to confirm that, wouldn’t want to dig into it, because it
certainly … looks bad for the city,” Lake said.

Arizona Republican state Senate nominee Mark Finchem also shared a meme alluding to cats being eaten by Haitian immigrants, while Flagstaff Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers posted multiple times on social media amplifying the false claim.

And the Arizona Republican Party trumpeted the invented story, creating a billboard themed after fast-food restaurant Chick-Fil-A’s ads. 

The billboard was condemned
as racist by advocacy organizations who said that it further spread
fear and lies around the Haitian immigrant community. The most recent
census lists approximately 2,900 Haitians living in Arizona. 

There is no evidence that the Haitian
migrants living in Springfield, who are in America legally and have
been credited with bolstering the city’s economy, have done any of the
heinous things Republicans, racists and anti-immigrant activists have
claimed. City leaders have repeatedly said there is no truth to the claims.

The false stories have had real-world consequences: More than 30 bomb threats
were made against schools, government buildings and city officials’
homes after Vance and Trump embraced the lies, forcing evacuations and
closures. State police were deployed to city schools, and the city canceled its annual celebration of diversity, arts and culture in response to the threats.

Vance has even acknowledged the stories are false, but defended spreading them — and said he would continue to do so — because doing so brought attention to the GOP’s anti-immigrant policy proposals.

Leach and McGarr did not respond to
multiple requests for comment asking if they were aware the stories are
false or their neo-Nazi origins.

“As every public servant should know,
words have consequences. Spreading racist smears like this is
dangerously irresponsible,” Pima County Democratic Party Chairman Eric
Robbins said in a statement to the Arizona Mirror. “Springfield
residents have been evacuated due to bomb threats to offices and
schools. Children are being targeted — and Vince Leach is laughing.”

The Mirror exclusively obtained footage from the event which was open to the public.