White nationalist Richard Spencer is a finalist in the Dallas Morning News’ annual Texan of the Year competition, potentially putting him in the same category as past winners including George W. Bush and Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
The Dallas Morning News named Mr. Spencer as a finalist for its 15th annual Texan of the Year title, citing his “uncommon negative impact.”
“Spencer is exploiting America’s perception that it is deeply divided. So long as Spencer can portray whites as victims in his imagined cultural war, he will continue to have an impact,” the Morning News said.
Mr. Spencer, 39, lived in Texas for about 18 years, he told The Times. His parents moved there when he was 2 from Brookline, Massachusetts, and as a teenager he attended St. Mark’s School of Texas, an exclusive all-male prep school in Dallas.
“Yee-haw! I definitely want to win,” he told The Washington Times when reached for comment.
Mr. Spencer currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia, the headquarters of his National Policy Institute think tank and only a couple hours away from his alma mater, the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. Over the summer, he participated in a pair of white nationalist gatherings in Charlottesville, including the Aug. 12 “Unite the Right” demonstration that descended into chaos connected to the death of two police officers and a counterprotester.
The Texan of the Year title “is not meant as award but as recognition of those Texans who had uncommon impact, which can be a positive or negative impact, during the past year,” according to Dallas Morning News.
“Like many other Person of the Year projects, our editorial board has always striven to highlight the most influential figures, even if their influence was negative,” said the Morning News. “You may recall that the Texan of the Year in 2007 was the ’Illegal Immigrant,’ a topic desperately deserving of conversation that year. If you have a moment to read the editorial about Spencer, I believe you will see that this is in no way a platform for racism.”
Mr. Bush was named the newspaper’s inaugural Texas of the Year in 2003, and subsequent winners have included politicians including Mr. Perry, the state’s former governor, as well as two senators, a congressman and, in 2014, the “Ebola Warriors,” the Dallas medical professionals who contracted the deadly virus while attempting to stop it from spreading.
Dallas Morning News said it will announce its 2017 Texan of the Year at the end of the month.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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