TOPEKA, Kan. — Two top officials of the Republican Party of Kansas are facing internal calls to resign over a viral online video showing people kicking and punching a mannequin wearing a mask of President Joe Biden at a fundraiser, highlighting deep divisions and problems in the national GOP party underlines to win over suburban voters.
Mike Brown, the state chair of the Kansas GOP, and Maria Holiday, the party’s leader in Johnson County in the Kansas City area, distanced themselves from the display during a Friday evening fundraiser for the county party. In a Facebook post, the state GOP blamed a third-party vendor who rented space at the event to promote a martial arts school.
Neither Brown nor Holiday responded to text messages requesting interviews, and the seller has not been identified.
Calls for their resignations began this weekend from Brown’s predecessor, Mike Kuckelman, a Kansas City attorney and frequent Brown critic, and quickly led to bipartisan condemnations amid widespread reporting. The state GOP accused Kuckelman of creating “a false narrative” and dividing the party.
The conflict between Brown and Kuckelman reflects the division within the national Republican Party between the most ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump’s election conspiracy and the more establishment wing, including former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. Kuckelman supported McDaniel’s re-election in 2022, while Brown wanted her out. Trump now controls the RNC entirely through hand-picked leaders.
The dispute is also notable because the fundraiser took place in Johnson County, the state’s most populous, where 20% of Kansas voters live. The county, which includes the Kansas City suburbs, has turned bluer since Trump’s election as president in 2016. It was key to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s victories in 2018 and 2022 and became a hot spot for GOP candidates. statewide became increasingly difficult to win.
“This disgusting visualization of violence went viral. This is not going to just go away,” Kuckelman said during an interview on Tuesday. “This does not help win over independent and soft Republican voters.”
Friday’s fundraiser featured 1970s rocker Ted Nugent, known for his support for gun rights, far-right political views and support for Trump, with tickets ranging from $90 for students to $300 for prime ministerial seats. The fashion model in the Biden mask also wore a “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirt, using a slogan that has become conservative code for a vulgar insult against the Democratic president.
The incident in Kansas also came as Trump’s campaign rhetoric became more violent. Last fall, he suggested that shoplifters should be shot immediately. He called his opponents “lowlifes,” threatened news organizations and later told a crowd in Iowa that he would not be a dictator “except on Day 1.”
Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican from Wichita, condemned all political violence. He said it’s important for people to use common sense at a time when elected officials from both parties have faced threats across the U.S. Last year, more than 100 Kansas lawmakers, including Hawkins, received threatening emails containing white powder that turned out not to be dangerous. .
“What may seem like a joke to many will be seen by some as an extension of acceptable behavior with potentially tragic consequences,” Hawkins said in a statement Tuesday.
In a Facebook post Monday evening, the Johnson County Republican Party described the Biden mask on the mannequin as just “a brief incident.”
“The mask was deplorable and removed,” the statement said. “No one has raised or solicited any money or donations in exchange for hitting the training device.”
The Kansas GOP said in a statement last weekend that none of its staff attended the event, calling Kuckelman “a disgruntled former member of the state party.”
“It is unfortunate that the events occurred, and even more so, the former state party member created a false narrative to spread rhetoric and capitalize on ongoing attempts to divide the party,” the statement said.
But Kuckelman said it’s “disingenuous” to blame the vendor because the party controlled the event and decided which vendors were there. He recalled the furor in 2017 when comedian Kathy Griffin took part in a photo shoot in which she held up a fake bloody head that resembled Trump’s.
“If this had happened when I was chairman, and a vendor had pulled a stunt like this, I would have stopped it immediately and had them escort the property,” he said. “This is so far over the line, you can’t just say ‘Stop’.”
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Associated Press writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.