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A staffer for Democratic Arizona Senate candidate Mark Kelly has apologized for making a profane remark about Chicago police on Twitter shortly before he joined Kelly’s campaign.
“I deeply regret my comment and apologize for what I wrote — I was wrong,” deputy campaign spokesman T.J. L’Heureux said in a statement released Thursday. “My comment does not reflect who I am or what I believe, and most importantly, it is not representative of what this campaign stands for. The language I used and the sentiment I conveyed do not belong in our political process, which is why I have deleted the tweet.”
L’Heureux made the comment in August, a week before he joined Kelly’s Senate campaign, in reference to images of Chicago police brutally confronting protesters in the city. The apology came shortly after the conservative Washington Free Beacon first reported on the comment, prompting L’Heureux to delete the tweet and lock his account.
“Our campaign values the public service, bravery and sacrifice of police officers across our nation,
Kelly — a former astronaut and husband to former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived a gunshot to the head during a 2011 assassination attempt — is locked in a close race against Republican Sen. Martha McSally. McSally lost a 2018 Senate race against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D) but was appointed in 2019 to fill a vacancy created by Sen. Jon Kyl’s (R) resignation.
President Donald Trump won Arizona over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by nearly 4 percentage points in 2016, though polls taken this month have shown Kelly leading McSally by up to 11 percentage points.