Earl Holt III (inset) is the president of the Council of Conservative Citizens.
The leader of a white supremacist group that apparently radicalized Dylann Roof, the suspect in the racially motivated killing of nine African Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church last week, has donated at least $3,500 to fund Gov. Scott Walker’s political campaigns since 2011.
Earl Holt III, of Texas, is the president of the Missouri-based Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) – a Christian, white nationalist group founded by former members of a 1950s-era segregationist group that fought school integration.
Holt made seven $500 contributions to Walker’s gubernatorial campaigns from 2011 to 2014, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s finance database. Holt also donated $1,250 to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in 2013 and $250 to Jonathan Steitz, a failed GOP recall candidate for state Senate in 2011, reports show.
Walker plans to donate the money “to charity,” says AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for Our American Revival, Walker’s 527 fundraising committee. Strong did not specify what charity and declined to comment on whether Holt had donated to OAR. Walker has yet to file reports of donations to his political action committee or to his recently formed presidential exploratory committee.
The Guardian first reported Monday that Holt has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and campaigns, including 2016 presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum.
A Cruz campaign spokesman told The New York Times that Holt’s $8,500 campaign donation would be refunded immediately. The $2,250 that Holt gave to Paul’s campaign will be sent to a victims support fund set up after the shooting. Santorum’s campaign will also give its $1,500 donation from Holt to this fund.
In the wake of the shooting, many conservatives have spoken out against the Confederate flag, which continues to fly over the South Carolina state Capitol grounds. Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney tweeted on Saturday that the flag is a “symbol of racial hatred” and urged its removal.
Over the weekend, Walker was in Washington along with other GOP presidential hopefuls, speaking to religious conservatives at a four-day conference organized by the Faith and Freedom Coalition. He denounced the Charleston shooting last Wednesday at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church as “racist” and “evil,” but he refused to weigh in on the Confederate flag, saying it should be a state issue.
"I think they're going to have a good healthy debate and should have that debate in South Carolina amongst officials at the state level," Walker said.
"I just think before I or anyone else weighs in on anything to do with policy, whether it's this or any other policy decisions, we should honor the dead and the families by allowing them to bury their loved ones. And then you could perfectly ask me that question at some point in the next week or two when that's done."
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, called on lawmakers Monday afternoon to remove the Confederate battle symbol, saying "that the flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state."
Shortly after Haley's announcement, Walker tweeted his approval.
