On the first day of Pride Month, Maine congressional candidate Jordan Wood (D) shared the story of a tense encounter he had at a March town hall meeting, which he says is a lesson that “democracy demands.”
“I’m not intimidated and I’ll never back down from a fight. That is what democracy demands, and this Pride Month, it’s what I’m running for Congress to protect,” the candidate said in his Pride post to social meda.
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Things got ugly for the gay candidate when a voter spouting conspiracy theories about voter fraud in the state attacked him personally with an unusual homophobic slur.
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Wood accompanied the message with video from the confrontation, showing an older man purporting to be a Democrat confronting Wood over what he described as an epidemic of voter fraud perpetuated by non-citizens voting in elections. Wood replied thoughtfully that Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud are a hoax perpetuated by right-wing MAGA stalwarts like former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R).
The man was not reassured and blew up at Wood.
“I’m a real Democrat, not a f**gocrat like you! Okay? I’ve heard enough of this bulls**t.”
“Get out!” said one town hall participant as the crowd turned on the man.
“Y’all can go to hell and put your head back in the f**king sand! Have a nice day,” the man replied.
To Wood, he added, “I’m not finished with you, jack**s!”
As the man left the room, Jordan apologized for the ugly scene.
“Again, open to the public and we don’t screen the questions,” he said.
Rather than leave it at that, however, Wood’s team followed the man out of the building and into the parking lot, where they did their best to talk him down.
“That’s when he told them he had guns in his car,” Wood said of the man.
“But our team didn’t give up,” he continued.
“They stood in the parking lot for 15 minutes and talked to this man about Social Security, his dogs, and listened as he brought up his family’s ties to the KKK. After a while, he apologized to them, and somewhat to me,” he said.
“The same courage it takes to stand up to hatred and lies is the courage this movement was built on,” Wood said of his candidacy. “Showing up. Standing your ground when it would be easier to walk away.
“I’ll keep showing up in every corner of Maine’s 2nd district. I’ll keep taking every question from every person who walks through the door,” he said.
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