Enid City Commissioner Accused Of Having Ties To Hate Groups Addresses Heated Crowd At Meeting

An Enid city commissioner addresses the community during an emotional and at times heated Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday night. Judd Blevins, City Commissioner for Ward 1, is accused of having past ties to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, prompting one organization to seek a recall election against him.

The Enid Social Justice Committee (ESJC) says it just wants Blevins to acknowledge or denounce his connection to these hate groups.

“Nazi,” you can hear someone yell from the crowd at Tuesday night’s Board of Commissioners meeting.

The members of the ESJC attending the meeting didn’t hold back their feelings.

“You’re a coward,” another person yelled. “Yeah, he is.”

All these comments were directed at Blevins. One by one, about half a dozen people stood at the podium before the board to lay out evidence of Blevins’ alleged associations with the neo-Nazi group, Identity Evropa. Evidence presented included photographs published by the Right-Wing Watch, showing Blevins allegedly participating in the Unite the Right Rally, a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. The group also has more than 1,000 comments leaked from a secure chat room, some including antisemitic language.

“This is insane, we have suffered this fool for long enough,” said Brian Balden, a concerned citizen. He continued by reading one of the posts, “‘Applauding Adolph Hitler as the model for how we should run our country.’ This is sickening.”

Blevins finally took the floor to respond to the crowd. “I am a different man today than I was yesterday and there is no hate in my heart,” Blevins said. “All there is a desire to follow the Lord. I'm not going to apologize for things I never was and I’m not going to apologize for the lies that others tell.”

However, the commissioner’s words weren’t enough. “Say you didn't do it,” someone yelled from the audience. “Say it wasn't you,” said another person in attendance.

“Explain this, if this is not true give us an explanation and he's refused to do that,” said Fr. James Neal with the ESJC. “We want him to acknowledge his past ties to these organizations and denounce them. If he did that, we were willing to table our recall effort.”

“I thought for a long time over the past few days about how I could address the people who are unhappy with me,” Blevins said. “They’ve made it clear there’s nothing I can say to them that will satisfy them. If it comes to it, I will stand before the voters of Ward 1, and I will defend the job I’ve done here in my first six months, and I will let them decide.”

The committee says it plans to move forward in seeking a recall election by first gathering at least 234 signatures on a petition.

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Enid City Commissioner With Alleged Ties To Hate Groups Could Face Recall Election