As National Police Week concludes, Democrat lawmakers who previously backed the “defund the police” movement are having to navigate their past positions on law enforcement as well as their recent support for sanctuary policies and the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
Democrats in closely contested House and Senate races, including James Talarico in Texas, Graham Platner in Maine, and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, have backed off or clarified past statements on police.
“I spent over a decade as a cop in Colorado, and I personally experienced how Denver Democrats and leftist extremists pushed anti-police policies that handcuffed officers, prioritized criminals over victims, and drove Denver homicides and fentanyl death rates to record highs,” Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., told The Daily Signal in a statement.
“Now Democrats in Congress have taken it even further—causing the two longest government shutdowns in American history to intentionally withhold funding from the very agencies that keep Americans safe,” he added.
On Wednesday, the House passed a resolution supporting law enforcement officers while condemning policies that could put officers at risk. However, 173 Democrats voted against the resolution sponsored by Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, with 29 members in support, three voting present, and seven not voting.
Nunn said this “shouldn’t be controversial.”
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“But from the ‘defund the police’ radicalism to sanctuary city policies that prevent cooperation with federal law enforcement, too many politicians have put ideology ahead of public safety,” Nunn said on the House floor.
Here’s what four Democrats in battleground races have said in the past about law enforcement.
1. Talarico Donations to ‘Police Reform’
Talarico, the Texas Senate nominee, in 2020 donated $2,500 to the Austin Justice Coalition, which supported cutting the state capital’s police budget.
He posted on Twitter that year: “After the murders of George Floyd and Javier Ambler, our campaign proudly donated to a well-respected civil rights organization in our community that champions educational equity, economic opportunity, and police reform.”
He also said in 2019 that having police officers in schools would lead to a “culture of violence.”
The Talarico campaign noted that his first bill as a state representative was naming a portion of U.S. Highway 79 after fallen Hutto police officer Sgt. Chris Kelley.
Talarico campaign spokesperson JT Ennis said it’s a “flat out lie” to say Talarico wants to defund the police.
“James opposes defunding the police, and has a proven track record voting to send billions of dollars to support law enforcement,” Ennis said in an email statement to The Daily Signal. “While John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, and the billionaires who prop them up play politics with school shootings by presenting a false choice between funding law enforcement and funding mental health resources for kids, James will continue standing up against both political parties to fix this broken, corrupt political system.”
2. Vasquez: ‘Not Just About Defunding Police’
Democrat Rep. Gabe Vasquez, who represents New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, said in 2020 he wanted “transformational reform” of the local police in Las Cruces.
Vasquez, while serving on the City Council in Las Cruces, responded to a constituent in 2020 who demanded at least a 50% reduction in the police budget, Fox News reported.
“I wholeheartedly and absolutely support police reform and the #blacklivesmatter movement, and will not be stopping short of transformational reform that brings justice to our city and to people of color in our community. You can count on my support,” he replied.
Vasquez also responded, “I agree,” to a separate message calling for “defunding the police department and moving those funds to strengthening social programs.”
Vasquez told Fox News in a 2022 statement, “I oppose defunding the police,” adding that as a council member, “I repeatedly voted to increase funding for the police.”
Vasquez was one of the 29 House Democrats voting this week in favor of the Nunn resolution supporting law enforcement.
In 2020, he used a pseudonym at an anti-police rally, asserting, “It’s not just about defunding police, it’s about defunding a system that privileges white people over everyone else,” The Washington Free Beacon reported.
Neither Vasquez’s congressional office nor the Vasquez campaign responded to inquiries from The Daily Signal on Thursday and Friday for this story.
3. Platner on Police ‘as a Whole’
Democrat Graham Platner, who is challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins, wrote on Reddit in 2021 that “Cops are bastards,” and said misconduct was a problem for “the profession as a whole.”
Platner told CNN last September: “I have an immense amount of friends who are police officers. They’re not all bastards because they’re literally buddies of mine.”
The Platner campaign did not respond to inquiries from The Daily Signal on Thursday and Friday for this story.
4. El-Sayed: ‘Standing Armies’
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed deleted old social media posts supporting the defund the police movement from 2020 and 2021.
Fox News reported that the posts included statements such as, “The police have become standing armies we deploy against our own people.”
He also wrote, “When we make a choice to invest in policing in a majority Black community, rather than to invest in public schools, that choice is influenced by systemic racism.”
A campaign spokesperson told Fox News last November that El-Sayed worked with law enforcement as Wayne County’s health officer.
The spokesperson said, “He learned and grew through the process—and has earned endorsements from a sitting sheriff, a former sheriff, and a Detroit police commissioner.”
El-Sayed was also reportedly on the board of Michigan United in 2020, which described law enforcement as a “racist and broken social infrastructure that leads to one innocent death after another.”
El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to inquiries on Thursday and Friday from The Daily Signal for this story.
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