The Clark County Republican Party’s Vancouver headquarters was vandalized last week, with the party and third district Congressional candidate Joe Kent pointing the finger at left-leaning groups.
According to Matthew Bumala, chairman of the Clark County Republicans, the graffiti was discovered the morning of Monday, Dec. 11, though the incident likely occurred over the previous weekend.
The windows of the building were spray painted with phrases including “Antifa is sexy” and “F*** Trump,” while posters that encouraged “free Gaza” and to “save the children of Palestine” were taped to the front door.
In a fundraising email Friday afternoon, Kent blamed the incident on ANTIFA, a decentralized left-leaning group scattered across the country. In an accompanying video, which Kent attached to the email, Kent referred to the posters as “Hamas propaganda.”
“Showing the coalition between those who support Hamas, as they kill women and children in Israel, and hold citizens hostage, and Antifa, who burned down Portland, Seattle, and multiple citizens in the country in 2020,” Kent said.
According to the press release from the Clark County Republican Party, however, a group called “Queer Liberation 161” was responsible.
“We saw this behavior leading up to the 2020 election, and it appears groups like this are crossing the river from Portland into our backyard in an attempt to intimidate Republicans,” according to the release.
Matthew Bumala said Thursday, Dec. 14 in an email that the vandalism was reported to police and they are investigating. As well, he said he thought people from Portland were responsible for the vandalism because “that activity was common there but not here,” adding this is the first time the headquarters in Vancouver had been vandalized.
— The Reflector editor Jessica Keller contributed to this report.
