Anti-Semitic Senate candidate booted from GOP convention

A GOP Senate candidate who glorifies Adolph Hitler and advocates limiting the number of Jews in government was bounced from the California Republican Party’s convention in San Diego on Saturday removed by security while he was kicking and dragging an Israeli flag.

Republican officials have denounced Patrick Little’s views, condemning his anti-Semitism and saying that Little isn’t active in the state party.

“It’s appalling,” GOP state party Chairman Jim Brulte said Friday. “We denounced him as harshly as we could.”

Little, 33, of Albany, made headlines in recent weeks after the self-described “white advocate” finished second in an April SurveyUSA poll of California’s U.S. Senate contest, supported by 18 percent of state voters. He finished behind only Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and the survey said Little was backed by 46 percent of Republicans polled.

Partially to blame for those results is a dearth of prominent Republican candidates in the race. Of the 11 GOP hopefuls for California’s U.S. Senate Seat, none have significant name recognition or money. In 2016, Republicans didn’t earn enough votes to advance past the state’s top-two primary in that year’s Senate race, placing two Democrats on that year’s November ballot.

Little was attempting to register at the convention at the Sheraton Hotel and Marina on Saturday morning when he was confronted by party officials, who told him to leave. Luis Alvarado, a Los Angelesbased GOP consultant who witnessed the incident, said the state party’s executive director, Cynthia Bryant, personally oversaw Little’s removal.

“I felt pride that my fellow Republicans wouldn’t stand for such toxic behavior,” Alvarado said. “We disapprove.”

Following the incident, Little posted a video to his campaign website from outside the convention, in which he spat and stood on the Israeli flag.

“I’ve got more than twice the support of any of those candidates in there,” Little said in the video, pointing to the hotel. “They just had me expelled from the building because I won’t serve Israel. I want to serve my country . ... The GOP of California is nothing but Zionist stooges.”