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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

News from Progress Michigan

January 7, 2015

Contact: Sam Inglot, 616-916-0574sam@progressmichigan.org

Progress Michigan to Tea Party: Cancel Agema as Keynote Speaker

Latest promotion of racism, religious intolerance should be last straw for leadership, incoming legislators

MICHIGAN — Republican Committeeman Dave Agema has been caught promoting yet another racist rant on his Facebook page. Progress Michigan is calling for Agema to be cancelled as a keynote speaker at a Tea Party gathering in Mount Pleasant this weekend.

On News Years Eve, Agema cited a piece that claimed, “…blacks are different by almost any measure to all other people. They cannot reason as well. They cannot communicate as well. They cannot control their impulses as well. They are a threat to all who cross their paths, black and non-black alike.”Agema called the piece “very enlightening.”

Just today, Agema doubled down on his ignorant worldview by issuing a statement that demonized all Muslims following a terrorist attack at a newspaper in France.

“Islam demands that no one can criticize (tolerance) their faith; however, they are free to decapitate , enslave , rape and mutilate all in the name of Islam (intolerance),” Agema wrote on his Facebook wall.

Agema is scheduled to speak at a Tea Party conference in Mount Pleasant this weekend, which is in GOP House Speaker Kevin Cotter’s district. Incoming GOP State Representatives Cindy Gamrat, Todd Courser and Gary Glenn, all of whom received an endorsement from Agema in the election, will also speak at the event.

“We see lawmakers like Speaker Cotter and Rep. Gamrat and their Tea Party allies as having two choices,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “It’s decision time for the Michigan GOP: Does Dave Agema truly represent your party and its beliefs, or is he just a bombastic ignoramus? They can remain silent in the face of bigotry, or they can actively weed it out of their party.”

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