Earl Cooper
Role at the time: Third-place finisher in the Republican U.S. House primary and write-in candidate, speaking to WHYY News
Statement summary
Earl Cooper, who finished third in the Republican primary for Delaware’s U.S. House seat, told WHYY that he began a write-in campaign because he found Arminio’s comments about McBride discriminatory. He said, “I am a man of color. I am an African American, and I felt like he’s setting us back”, and that people who back Arminio are making clear “that they are in line with him”, which he disagreed with.
“I am a man of color. I am an African American, and I felt like he’s setting us back … I see a lot of the people who back him. They are really kind of making it very clear that they are in line with him and I disagreed with that. So for that reason, I went today to give Delawareans a choice.”
Why we used this label
Relative to whether Arminio’s conduct warranted removal from the forum and withdrawal from the race, Cooper rejects the conduct, saying it is “setting us back”, and acts on that view by launching a write-in challenge. That is an express criticism of the conduct, not a comment on tone or coverage, so condemns fits better than “Mixed or conditional”.