Elections

Oklahoma Councilman Faces Recall Over White Nationalist Ties

NOT OK

Judd Blevins marched alongside neo-Nazis at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville and has consistently refused to condemn them.

Judd Blevins, ward 1 commissioner for Enid, Oklahoma
City of Enid

The choice to recall Enid, Oklahoma Commissioner Judd Blevins from his elected office will be on the local ballot this spring, following an intense effort that exposed his ties to white nationalist groups and participation in the 2017 Charlottesville white supremacist rally.

The ballot measure, slated for the polls on April 2, is the result of efforts led by the Enid Social Justice Committee, which accuses Blevins of openly embracing neo-Nazism and failing to publicly denounce it. Its website features several photos of Blevins marching at the “Unite the Right” Charlottesville rally while carrying a torch.

“Enid City Commissioner Judd Blevins embraces the same Nazi ideology we defeated almost 80 years ago,” the committee’s statement reads.

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“He marched with neo-Nazis and other hate groups in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. He’s been linked to chat room posts planning that violent march, posting hate group propaganda on campuses and in parks across Oklahoma, and recruiting new members to the hate group Identity Evropa,” the committee added, referring to the now-defunct group classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist group.

Blevins called the effort to recall him a “smear campaign” carried out by a “fringe group.”

He has admitted that he attended the Charlottesville rally—which left one counter protester, Heather Heyer, dead after a violent clash between the groups—but said at a forum this week that he was there to protest the removal of Confederate statues and “anti-white hatred,” PBS reported.

When asked at the forum if he would denounce white supremacists and their agenda, Blevins answered, “I can’t renounce things I never was, but again I’m opposed to all forms of racial hate and racial discrimination.”

Blevins’ term as the commissioner for Enid’s first ward has been marred by his white supremacist ties since he was first elected in 2023. While he was still a candidate, the Enid News & Eagle reported that the progressive watchdog Right Wing Watch had in 2019 named Blevins the Oklahoma state coordinator for Identity Evropa.

Blevins dismissed the claim as “smears” against him for criticizing “the ruling liberal establishment.”

“I am absolutely opposed to the erasure of America’s history and heritage,” he said in a written statement to the Eagle.