Jean Cramer, Marysville City Council Candidate Who Wanted To Keep City White, Withdraws From Race
Jean Cramer, the candidate for a seat on the Marysville, Michigan city council who had said that she wanted to keep the town “as white as possible,” has withdrawn from the race, Yahoo News reports.
Cramer made the news last week when, as reported at the time by The Inquisitr, she made the remarks that were widely seen as racist. She was one of five people — three incumbents and two other challengers — vying for one of three seats on the city council in the city of about 10,000 people.
During a forum about the issues affecting the small town, the moderator asked the candidates what should be done to bring more diversity to the city, for example, by attracting “foreign-born” people to the community. Cramer responded that she wanted to “keep Marysville a white community as much as possible.”
The response drew shocked laughter from some in the audience, and one attendee jokingly said he was consulting the calendar to see if it was still 2019.
When she was later asked about her remarks, according to a Times Herald report, Cramer doubled down. Specifically, she was reminded that Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Hayman had a black son-in-law and biracial grandchildren, a state of affairs that Cramer didn’t agree with.
“(A) husband and wife need to be the same race. Same thing with kids. That’s how it’s been from the beginning of, how can I say, when God created the heaven and the earth. He created Adam and Eve at the same time,” she said.
Jean Cramer, a council candidate in Marysville, Michigan says she wants to keep the city "a white community as much as possible."
She also said a "husband and wife need to be the same race." https://t.co/4HiJbnprjL pic.twitter.com/LBxLFmXCwa
— Complex (@Complex) August 26, 2019
And as for Marysville, she said that, “as far as I know, as long as we’ve been here, Marysville has been a white community, a white city. If we have seen a black person here and there, whatever, we’re not bothered by it. I’m not bothered by it,” she said.
Within hours, Cramer was facing calls to resign, including from Marysville Mayor Dan Damman, who said that he didn’t believe Cramer was “fit to serve as an elected official in Marysville or anywhere else.”
On Monday, Cramer submitted a letter to Damman, announcing that she was withdrawing from the race. She did not specify her reason for doing so.
Cramer’s name will still be on the November ballot when Marysville residents vote, however. That’s because the city consulted with state election officials, who informed them that it was too late to formally remove her name from the ballot.
