DeSantis Appointee in Majority-Black County Resigns Over Klan Costume Pics
A Republican county commissioner appointed by right-wing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to govern in Florida’s only majority-Black county resigned last week, after pictures surfaced that allegedly depict him in a KKK costume.
Gadsden County Commissioner Jefferey Moore was appointed by DeSantis in August to serve out the rest of the term in the District 2 seat after the previous officeholder retired, according to Tallahassee-based WTXL. A former staffer at the Florida Department of Revenue, Moore was the Republican nominee for the seat on the previously all-Democratic five-member board in the November general election.
But last week, a photo purportedly showing Moore wearing a KKK costume began circulating in the county. “I really got this gut feeling in the bottom of my stomach,” fellow commissioner Brenda Holt told the Tallahassee Democrat after she first saw the photograph. “It’s just total disrespect.”
VICE News has not been able to verify the photo.
Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young, who is Black and endorsed DeSantis for re-election this year, told Politico he first saw the photos on Sept. 20 and confronted Young about them last week.
“He never denied at all. Refuted nothing when I showed him the pictures,” Young told Politico. “I thought he needed to resign, and I told him that.”
Local pastor Tracey Stallworth told the Democrat that “it’s a very sad day in our history and a sad time” for “the blackest county in the state.”
“This is not OK,” Stallworth told the Democrat.
Moore submitted his resignation letter to DeSantis Friday, citing “personal reasons” without going into detail, according to the Democrat. Moore has also withdrawn from the November election for a full term on the board.
DeSantis communications director Taryn Fenske told Politico that “we are in the middle of hurricane prep, I’m not aware of the photo you sent but Jeff did submit his resignation last week.”
Just days after DeSantis took office in 2019, his appointee for secretary of state, Michael Ertel, resigned after photos from 2005 surfaced showing him dressed as a Hurricane Katrina victim and wearing blackface at a Halloween party.
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Paul Blest, Khareem Sudlow
