The Tennessee Republican Party and the Polk County Kiwanis Club are among those rapping a “Make America White Again” billboard erected briefly in Polk County by 3rd District Congressional candidate Rick Tyler.
The Ocoee Kiwanis Club said it will no longer hold its weekly meetings at the Ocoee restaurant owned by the Independent candidate.
The billboard was taken down after the backlash erupted.
GOP Chairman Ryan Haynes said, "There's no room for this type of hateful display in our political discourse. Racism should be rejected in all its heinous forms in the Third Congressional District and around the country."
The Kiwanis president said, "Due to recent statements and overtly racist billboards by the principal owner of the Whitewater Grill in Ocoee and himself a declared Independent candidate for Congress, the Kiwanis Club of Ocoee will never meet there again. We are a civic club of inclusion and not exclusion and find these statements repugnant. As a citizen of Polk County, I, Chris Newton, will never personally be back to this establishment.
"We will be locating a new meeting venue in the coming days."
The candidate said he was not a racist, but he said he wanted to take America back to "Leave It To Beaver" and ""Ozzie and Harriet" days where the country did not face so many vexing problems.