“Racist. Arrogant. Totally out of touch,” said the NRCC’s Hispanic Press Secretary Christian Martinez.
California congressional hopeful Esther Kim Varet, a Democrat running to represent the Golden State’s 40th District, just made national headlines—but not in the way that she had likely hoped. Visitors to the Endorsements page of Kim Varet’s campaign website were greeted not with an image of Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), but instead by a stock image of a random black woman alongside Crockett’s name.
When Fox News Digital reached out about the error, the campaign hurriedly took the image down—curiously, along with any mention of Rep. Jasmine Crockett. But Kim Varet herself has not, as of the time of writing, issued any sort of apology over the incident.
The closest thing to an acknowledgment was a reply from the campaign account to Business Insider senior politics reporter Bryan Metzger: “Thanks for flagging this error on our site @metzgov!”
The reply came over an hour after Metzger identified the issue on Twitter/X. The statement did little to quiet constituents’ concerns or acknowledge why this is particularly concerning in that it involves a demographic group that has been at the center of broader cultural and political debates on representation and respect.
Does she hope that, by not trumpeting it, her constituents will forget all about it? If critics’ responses are anything to go by, it’s going to take a Christmas miracle for that to be the case.
“Imagine if a Republican did this. It’d be national news for weeks,” said GOP strategist James Falconer.
“This isn’t just some typo,” stated the NRCC’s Hispanic Press Secretary Christian Martinez. “This is what happens when Democrats tokenize minorities and treat identity like a prop.
According to reporting by the New York Post, Kim Varet has allegedly targeted Martinez in the past, telling him to “prove that you’re a REAL Latino.”
“Racist. Arrogant. Totally out of touch,” said Martinez. “Good thing @estherkimvaret’s hate-filled, bigoted self isn’t getting anywhere near Congress.”
This isn’t the first time Kim Varet has drawn criticism for racially insensitive conduct. During her campaign, she has repeatedly referred to one of her political opponents, Rep. Young Kim (R-La Habra), as a “Judas” to the Korean-American community and has mocked the congresswoman’s accent (Rep. Kim speaks English as a second language). For this, Kim Varet faced immense backlash and accusations of cultural insensitivity.
“I will be the first to admit that as a first time candidate, I’m sloppy,” Kim Varet said in an Instagram post in August.
Kim Varet will need to overcome that “sloppiness” if she hopes to win a battle against two established incumbent Republicans. Of course, Kim is one—the other is Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Riverside), who has served continuously in Congress for more than 30 years. Due to the passage of Prop 50 and California Democrats’ efforts to redraw the state’s districts in a partisan fashion, Calvert and Kim now find themselves running in the same district.
Kim Varet hopes that she can—as a newcomer—emerge as the top vote-getter solely by coalescing Democrat votes while two Republican titans cannibalize one another’s vote totals. That’s a plausible outcome, but it’s not going to be easy to pull off that gambit if she keeps making “sloppy” mistakes and racially-insensitive blunders.
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