Stanart’s campaign vs. Soros questioned
Judging by Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart’s campaign website, you might think that he is running against George Soros — the billionaire Jewish philanthropist who’s become a worldwide lightning rod for anti-Semitic groups, white supremacists and conspiracy theorists, but who has no apparent connection to the county clerk’s duties or to any current Harris County race.
“Make NO mistake,” begins the main article on re-elect.stanstanart.com. “George Soros wants to control Harris County Elections and Stan Stanart is in his way…. There are many more Flag Waving, defenders of the Constitution then [sic] those who support Soros’ world views, but remember ‘All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.’”
The page unnerves observers attuned to historic attacks on Jews — particularly in light of the past two weeks, in which a Trump supporter sent a pipe bomb to Soros’ house, and a conspiracy theoryfueled neo-Nazi gunman killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Stanart’s focus on Soros is “clearly a dog whistle,” said Houston voter Rachel Dvoretzky, who discovered Stanart’s website last week via a discussion on Facebook. “It’s red meat for a wave of anti-Semitism that’s infecting
American public discourse right now.”
The Anti-Defamation League noted earlier in October that Soros had become the focus of “outsized conspiracy theories, including claims that he masterminds specific global plots or manipulates particular events to further his goals. Many of those conspiracy theories employ longstanding anti-Semitic myths, particularly the notion that rich and powerful Jews work behind the scenes, plotting to control countries and manipulate global events.”
That’s part of a rising tide of anti-Semitism, which had been growing fast even before the past week’s violence. According to the ADL, in 2017, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. surged 57 percent.
Stanart, for his part, said there’s no anti-Semitic intent behind his website. “Are you serious?” he shouted on the phone. “Are you serious?”
Asked about the ADL statement decrying conspiracy theories related to Soros, Stanart called it “B.S.! Big B.S.! He meddles in lots of races across the U.S. It has nothing to do with religion.”
The Republican base
Rice political science professor Bob Stein suggests that Stanart’s focus on Soros is a cool political calculation — what it takes for a Republican to win in Harris County as it tilts more Democratic. “This kind of campaign is all about bringing out the Republican base,” Stein said. “Most Harris County voters don’t know who George Soros is. Stanart isn’t running against a Democrat. He’s not running against [Democratic opponent Diane] Trautman. What you’re seeing right now is meaningless unless you’re a core Republican.”
That partisan appeal stands out in the race for county clerk, a job whose nonpartisan-seeming duties include recording official meetings, filing birth and death records, and ensuring that election days go smoothly. This year, you’d expect candidates to discuss issues such as local ballot security, polling machine accuracy and ease of voting.
But since 2004, when Soros donated heavily to John Kerry’s presidential campaign, he’s been a favorite whipping post for the right wing of the Republican Party.
The neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website has pushed out posters blaming Soros for funding protests against Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court. Anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney has sent supporters an email
“Anybody in an elected position who represents a minority population — including Jews, but not limited to Jews — has to be careful. Public statements are volatile, dangerous. They get weaponized. They can be used against the people you’re elected to serve.” Oren Hayon, senior rabbi at Houston’s Congregation Emanu El
blast asking “Is George Soros the anti-Christ?”
In May, comedian Roseanne Barr falsely tweeted that Soros, a Holocaust survivor, was a “Nazi who turned in his fellow Jews.” Donald Trump Jr. retweeted her.
Most recently, Soros has been painted as the mastermind and financial backer of the migrant caravan trekking toward the U.S. — claims that appear to have no basis in fact. “This is an invasion of our Country,” President Trump declared in one tweet. In another, on Oct. 18, he released a video said to show someone connected to Soros handing cash to the migrants.
On Oct. 22, a pipe bomb was found at Soros’ house. Cesar Sayoc, a Florida man with a long criminal record, has been charged with mailing bombs to Soros and a dozen other Democrats whom the president frequently criticizes.
On Oct. 27, police say gunman Robert Bowers killed 11 people in and around Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. For months, he’d fulminated on the internet, calling immigrants “invaders” and writing that Jews are the “enemy of white people” and “children of Satan.”
Oren Hayon, senior rabbi at Houston’s Congregation Emanu El, urges public officials to take particular care not to stir hatred.
“Anybody in an elected position who represents a minority population — including Jews, but not limited to Jews — has to be careful,” Hayon said. “Public statements are volatile, dangerous. They get weaponized. They can be used against the people you’re elected to serve.”
Dog whistles such as references to the global elite, said Hayon, send clear signals to white nationalists. “It doesn’t take a genius to be able to crack that code.”
‘Strong rumors’
Stanart, asked why his campaign website focuses on Soros, said that he posted it during the Republican primary, when he heard “strong rumors” that Soros might back Stanart’s Democratic opponent. But since then, there’s been no evidence that Soros is funding Trautman, or any other Harris County candidate.
Though his race against Trautman is tight, Stanart said he simply hadn’t updated the main part of his website since then. The Soros article, with its quote about evil, remains front and center.
But last week, after the shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue, Stanart adjusted his website. Beside the Soros entry, he added a small sidebar note decrying the “horrific tragedy that hate has brought,” and declaring himself “a longtime friend of Jews in America and throughout the world.”
Dvoretzky is unconvinced. “With friends like him,” she said, “who needs enemies?”