Oklahoma residents remove city commissioner with white nationalist ties

Oklahoma residents voted Tuesday to remove a city commissioner who had white nationalist ties.

The recall election in Enid, Okla., recalled Judd Blevins, a commissioner for Ward 1.

According to KFOR News, Blevins lost the recall election. Cheryl Patterson earned 59.64 percent of the vote and Blevins earned 40.36 percent.

Blevins, an Iraq War veteran, was elected in February 2023 after the local paper ran a story about his white nationalist ties.

The Enid Social Justice Committee has accused Blevins of being “an open Nazi” who was “photographed numerous times” at the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017.

The committee said Blevins has been linked to a chat room that planned the march and other posts connected to a hate group, Identity Evropa, which has been considered the group that helped plan the deadly march.

“He’s been reported as not just being there, but organizing pro-nazi events in Charlottesville, and here in Oklahoma,” the committee’s website said.

The committee gained enough signatures to force a recall election.

In a statement Tuesday evening to The Hill, Blevins expressed his gratitude to the voters, volunteers and donors who supported him.

“It took a coalition of leftists and moderates, an all out media blitz from local, state, and national outlets, and scare tactics about the future of Vance AFB, unfounded in any truth or reality yet shamefully endorsed by the establishment, to remove a true conservative from office. So be it,” he said.

“This was a trial not just for me, but for many in this community. And many have shown who they really serve. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith,” his statement said.

In a community forum Tuesday, he acknowledged that he participated in the rally and has been connected to Identity Evropa, but he said he is now “opposed to all forms of racial hate and racial discrimination,” The Associated Press reported.

Patrick Anderson, a Republican who represented Enid in the state Senate, told the AP that he thinks Blevin’s connections to white nationalism do not “reflect the views of our community.” Anderson told the newswire that low voter turnout allowed hard-core Blevin supporters to help him secure the win.

MSNBC was in Enid on Tuesday to report on voter turnout for the recall election, and it said the opinion is “a mix,” with some people supporting Blevins and his work since taking office. The “prevailing evidence” showed voters didn’t know the extent to which Blevins was involved, noted MSNBC. The outlet also reported that many people voting in the recall election had never voted before or did not vote in the race that elected Blevins.

Story was updated at 10:18 p.m.