Vince Leach in 2024. Photo by Gage Skidmore | Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
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.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
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.
It’s election season, so of course the AZGOP is using a racist lie to scare voters
“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.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.