Senate candidate tweets ‘Black lives matter more than statues’
Widespread criticism has rained down on those who led a night of destructive protests in Madison on Tuesday night after the arrest of a Black protester.
Many on the left and right were left baffled and upset that rioters toppled two iconic Capitol statues — one of an abolitionist who died during the Civil War and the other a female figure representing the state motto “Forward.”
But one state Senate candidate, Nada Elmikashfi, defended the destruction in no uncertain terms.
“(Expletive) your statues,” Elmikashfi wrote on Twitter, dropping the first of several f-bombs.
Elmikashfi said she was particularly upset that the destruction of the statues were getting more attention than the Black men and women killed by police officers.
She is one of six Democrats running for a Madison seat held by state Sen. Fred Risser, the longestserving senator in state history. She has the support of the Madison Area Democratic Socialists, the People for Bernie and several local politicians.
“Why are liberals acting like this anti-slavery union general statute (sic) is the second coming of Angela Davis?” Elmikashfi posted on Wednesday, referring to the longtime Black activist and civil rights leader.
And then she wrote: “The GOP has found me and are pressed about a bad word I said. Let me repeat it: (expletive). your. statues.”
Finally, Elmikashfi, a 24-year-old recent University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate and a Muslim immigrant from Sudan, said, “I’m glad my future colleagues in the legislature are getting a good introduction of how nice I’ll be in the Capitol when it comes to their anti-blackness.”
She didn’t tweet on the assault of state Sen. Tim Carpenter — a Senate Democrat with whom she would work if she wins — during the Tuesday protests.
By the time Elmikashfi was done, she had divided her own campaign team.
The mother of her campaign manager, Julie Henszey, announced on Facebook that she would not host a fundraiser for the first-time candidate. Henszey, a Democratic activist, narrowly lost her own Senate bid in 2018.
“I am not aligned with the manner in which Nada expressed herself around recent events in Madison,” Henszey wrote before later taking down the post. “It’s not in alignment with my view of leadership. So I have cancelled my fundraising event for now.”
Minutes later, the campaign deleted the invitation to the fundraiser.
Reached Wednesday afternoon, Elmikashfi said she had been overwhelmed by those responding to her tweets. She retweeted one post in which an individual wrote, “Stay the hell out of our country you anti-American piece of (expletive).”
The whole thing, she said, had been a “jarring thing.”
“It’s disappointing when people are more upset about a statement about statues than Black men being killed,” said Elmikashfi, who worked as a short-term employee in Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ office in the appointments department from September to December last year.
She emphasized that the two statues that were torn down stood in front of the Capitol while Wisconsin has become one of the most segregated states in the country. The symbolism of the lady Forward, she said, has applied only to white Wisconsinites.
Jean Pond Miner’s Forward bronze statue first represented Wisconsin at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The statue of Col. Hans Christian Heg was installed at the Capitol in 1926 after a lengthy campaign by Norwegian Americans to honor the political abolitionist and Union colonel who died during the Civil War.
On Wednesday afternoon, Elmikashfi said she had no idea that her campaign manager’s mother had canceled a fundraiser over the tweets. She directed questions to her campaign manager, David O’Keeffe.
Several hours later, Elmikashfi issued a statement on the canceled event.
In it, she said her campaign has always been about challenging the political status quo.
“I’m not worried about political correctness when Black and Brown lives are at stake,” Elmikashfi said. “I unapologetically stand by my comments that Black lives matter more than statues. If that makes people uncomfortable, then it means we are succeeding.”