Emily Randall, a Washington state senator who is running for the state’s 6th Congressional District, fired her campaign manager, Anna Carlson-Ziegler, over what Jewish Insider called “extensive anti-Israel and pro-Hamas social media activity.”
Carlson-Ziegler wrote online of “Palestinian resistance as a natural and praiseworthy response to Zionist occupation and brutality,” that Hamas is “the Palestinian resistance” and called repeatedly for “the fall of the Zionist regime,” according to Jewish Insider.
Randall, who is running against Hilary Franz—the public lands commissioner who has the backing of retiring Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.)—told Jewish Insider that she was unaware of her then-campaign manager’s anti-Israel posts.
Upon “confirming social media activity consistent with what you described, I made the decision to end their employment with our campaign,” she told the publication.
Although Randall told Jewish Insider that she has “a great connection to Israel,” stands Jew-hatred and wants to see Hamas “eradicated” after its “vicious, unprovoked and unlawful” terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, the publication reported that the state senator “has attracted support from figures who have also expressed strong anti-Israel views, beyond her campaign manager.”
That included financial backers of Randall’s campaign, who posted that Jews can’t live in the Middle East in peace “because they left here black but came back white” and “praised the First Intifada.”
“Randall said she ‘unequivocally’ does not support these sentiments, without addressing the issue further,” Jewish Insider reported.
As of late March, Randall has raised nearly $530,000, compared to Franz’s nearly $820,000, per the U.S. Federal Elections Commission. Kilmer had raised more than $1 million, per the most recent FEC data.
