Chairman-elect of Harris County GOP will not take office
Keith Nielsen, the chairmanelect of the Harris County Republican Party, announced Saturday he will not take office in August after facing criticism and calls to step down for his recent Facebook post displaying a Martin Luther King Jr. quote next to a banana.
The post, which recalls the racist trope associating black people with monkeys, spurred top Texas Republicans including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Sen. Ted Cruz to call for Nielsen to decline the office. He was set to become chairman Aug. 3 after defeating incumbent Paul Simpson in March.
In a statement posted to Facebook, Nielsen again invoked the King quote — “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” — from his controversial post, saying it is “as relevant today as when it was delivered.”
Nielsen’s announcement means the party’s executive committee will vote to decide the next chair. The committee is scheduled to meet June 29.
The news came amid growing
momentum to push Nielsen out as chair-elect. Eleven Harris County GOP precinct chairs had signed and begun circulating a “no confidence” petition that called for Nielsen not to assume the position.
A spokesperson for Simpson, asked whether the chairman plans to seek the position again, said he was not ready to comment on his future plans.
Nielsen, who resigned from the Pasadena planning commission Friday, previously apologized for the post and said he had “zero malicious intent.” He said he had intended to speak out against the “violence, burning and looting of small businesses” that have unfolded during protests for George Floyd and “say that it’s bananas to act this way.”
Floyd, a black former Houston resident, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt said he respected Nielsen for his decision, adding that “the true measure of a person is what they do in the face of adversity.”