Former Ku Klux Klan leader who served time in prison for beating up a black man is running for Georgia as a “white civil rights activist” of the Republican Party.
Chester Doles, 61, was once known as the Grand Cliff of the Invisible Empire, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Maryland and has made numerous television and newspaper appearances to share his racist beliefs.
In a recent interview with CBS46, Doles was asked if he condemns racism, and he replied, “I publicly condemn racism, yes, ma’am,” Doles replied.
Doles said a criminal record should not disqualify anyone from holding public office and compared himself to civil rights activists, including the late Rep. John Lewis, who have held public office despite their background.
“If you look at Hosea Williams, he was a member of the city council, he was arrested 168 times. Congressman John Lewis was arrested 68 times, so this is not a reason to disqualify someone, ”Doles said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of civil rights movement you are, then I’m a white civil rights activist.”
Chester Dole, 61, (pictured on the campaign trail), a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who served time for hitting a black man, is running as a Republican for the Board of Commissioners in Georgia.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Doles was sentenced to prison for beating a black man in 1993 in Maryland and again for gun violations in Georgia. In the photo, 1992 in a KKK cap.
Doles, 61, was once known as the Grand Cliff of the Invisible Empire, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and was featured in many early 1990s newspaper clippings.
Doles has been the focus of newspaper clipping photographs of Ku Klux Klan marches since the early 1990s, but claims to have changed his racist views in 2020 with the help of a black Republican preacher and now claims he is right for the position .
Doles also marched with the Hammerskins, a racist skinhead gang, and at the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which resulted in the death of protester Heather Hayes.
But the convicted felon, who claims to have “turned down racism” in 2020, told CBS46 in early March that he is a reformed man and is now fully eligible to run as a Republican for a seat on the Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners in Georgia.
In March, Doles told CBS46 that a criminal record should not disqualify anyone from holding public office and compared himself to civil rights activists who have held public office despite arrests.
Doles’ prison sentence dates back to 1993, when he was convicted of beating a black man in Maryland and served four years for the crime. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in 2003 he spent four more years behind gun violations in Georgia.
Doles told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that each incident was “a misunderstanding or extenuating circumstances.”
Doles was also arrested in 2016 after a bar fight where authorities reportedly identified him as the leader of the Hammerskins. He was sentenced to probation.
In early March, CBS46 looked into how a convicted felon was able to get on the ballot for the commissioner seat.
According to the Georgia code, felons can hold elected office in Georgia if their civil rights are restored and if at least 10 years have passed since they served their sentences, CBS46 found.
Doles was released from federal prison on weapons charges in 2007, meaning he was 10 years old.
Doles is pictured in 1992, at the height of his “career” as a member of the KKK.
Doles is a longtime white supremacist who spent decades in the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi National Alliance (pictured at a Trump rally last year).
In 2019, Doles founded a new organization called American Patriots USA, a group supporting President Donald Trump.
In a March 8 tweet, Doles said he was fully qualified to run for the Lumpkin County commission and has been campaigning ever since.
In a recent campaign photo, he holds signs that read “Stop Socialism.” Save America,” which is the slogan of controversial Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, who is supported by Doles.
“This sick, crazy wake culture is destroying America. These people want us to leave. We American Patriots are a new and endangered species,” Doles told a campaign crowd.
Doles said his main policy would be to “keep Lumpkin County’s educational system out of the way of critical racial theory.”
“This is Marxism,” he added. “This is an attempt to instill white guilt in young white children. It needs to be cancelled.”
Primary elections are scheduled for May 24.
Chester Doles and armed militia and Trump supporters in front of Georgia’s capital
Doles, who tried to infiltrate Republican politics in 2020, said he has abandoned his past while maintaining ties to longtime friends in the white supremacist movement.
In 2019, Doles founded a new organization called American Patriots USA, a group that supports President Donald Trump but remains closely aligned with the far-right militia movement.
Doles endorsed several promising political candidates in the 2020 election, but also attempted to associate himself with Greene, who suspended Doles from the event.
Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Leffler posed for a photo with Doles in 2020 that circulated on social media, sparking an outcry from activists.
Her campaign said she “didn’t know” who Dawles was when she took her picture with him, her campaign spokesperson Stephen Lawson said in a 2020 statement to the Associated Press.
“Kelly had no idea who he was, and if she knew, she would immediately kick him out, because we condemn everything that he stands for in the loudest way,” Lawson said.
The campaign team of Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Leffler insisted she “didn’t know” who former Ku Klux Klan leader Chester Doles was when she posed for a photo with him (pictured) at a recent event.