Maria Estrada
BY BRIAN HEWS
Democrat Maria Estrada, a candidate who placed second in the June primary and is running against Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), praised the anti-Semitic and homophobic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Facebook and accused Israel of committing “genocide” against the Palestinians, all while slamming her own political party.
The posts by were first reported by the Forward.com and will have many wondering why a Latina woman running for an Assembly seat in southeast Los Angeles would be going out of her way to slam Jews.
Many of Estrada’s posts echo the racist homophobic views of the current White House administration and Donald Trump.
With her posts, Estrada endorsed Farrakhan’s claims that “Zionist Jews” were behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that Jews control the government, that Jews control Hollywood, and that Jews use their “power” to make black men gay.
A group called Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party compiled other controversial comments made by Estrada.
In one post, Estrada inexplicably slammed her own party, and belittled the Holocaust writing, “Democrats turn a blind eye to the genocide against Palestinians and justify it by bringing up the Holocaust. As if what happened 70 years ago justifies it.”
She even bashed California Democratic Chair Eric Bauman for not keeping “your party, your religion, and your people in check.”
Estrada was later found posting an extremely questionable cartoon that showed a man with an Israeli flag stabbed into his back. The cartoon replaced the Star of David on the Israeli flag with the swastika of the Nazis.
Screenshot of a Facebook post by Maria Estrada from the Progressive Zionists Facebook page with the Star of David replaced by a Nazi swasticka.
“Anyone who believes they are one of God’s chosen people automatically feels superior, religious fanaticism is used to justify crimes against Palestinians and no one should be okay with it.”
In one inflammatory and rambling post, Estrada wrote, “today’s democrats are an insult to Democrats and Latinos being that they have all been taking money from the private prison industry. They said nothing when Obama deported a record number of immigrants and separated families as well.”
In a response to the Forward.com, Estrada attempted to walk back her racist and homophobic posts, “To be clear, I am anti-Zionism, not anti-Semitic. Listening to Farrakhan doesn’t equate to being anti-Semitic.”
Estrada finished a distant second among three candidates, barely defeating Republican candidate Adam Miller. Under California’s top-two system, Estrada will face Rendon in November having to make up a massive 18% voting deficit, which could explain her erratic behavior.
The California Secretary of State’s website shows that Estrada has not filed a campaign finance report. HMG-CN obtained Estrada’s campaign finance documents from the Norwalk Registrar/Recorder’s Office that show she has raised just under $9,000, loaning herself $1,233.
Of note, the documents show that actress Susan Sarandon donated Estrada $250.
[…] Maria Estrada ran for State Assembly in California, the California Democratic Party was silent on her antisemitism. Privately they acknowledged that she was a problem in my conversations with them, but […]