California Republican congressional candidate Michelle Steel alleged in a statement on Tuesday Rep. Harley Rouda (D-CA) attended “racist” parties while in college.
Photos resurfaced of Rouda’s University of Kentucky fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, hosting “Mekong Delta” parties that refer to the Mekong River Delta, in which towns were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands died during the Vietnam war.
Michelle Steel, a GOP congressional candidate, hoping to oust Rouda (pictured), slammed the California Democrat for attending controversial parties.
.@HarleyRouda owes an apology and explanation as to why he would condone and attend racist parties that denigrated our Vietnamese families. Parties like these perpetuate stereotypes and racism that we work every day to stop. https://t.co/KVuJaqeJL5
— Michelle Steel (@MichelleSteelCA) June 23, 2020
The California Globe’s report on Rouda came as the congressman recently condemned alleged racist incidents in California.
“I will never betray Orange County’s Jewish and communities of color by staying silent,” Rouda said in a statement in May.
He also said he would question experts “confronting white supremacy on the most effective ways to stop these hateful actions.”
Rouda represents a pivotal swing district, California’s 48th district, that could help Republicans retake the House.
Former Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA) held the district from 2012 and lost his race to Rouda in 2018. Rohrbacher lost his seat by only 7.2 percentage points during the 2018 midterm elections.
Republicans need to retake net 17 congressional districts to regain the House majority. President Donald Trump won 30 congressional districts, not including Rouda’s seat, during the 2016 presidential election, but House Democrats managed to flip during the 2018 midterm elections.
Ousting Rouda would make it one seat easier for Republicans to regain the House majority during the 2020 congressional elections.
Rouda has said Trump is “ignorant” about race issues in America, even though editors of the University of Kentucky’s school newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, featured many letters to the editor condemning Rouda’s fraternity’s controversial parties.
Rouda has also criticized Trump for calling the coronavirus the “China Virus” and ran television ads targeting Orange County, California’s Vietnamese community. According to the 2010 census, Orange County has more than 200,000 Vietnamese.
The California Globe did not receive a response regarding their request for comment on why Rouda has not talked about his Mekong Delta parties, or if he regrets participating.
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