Dems, GOP Senate Candidate Spar Over Immigration Tweet

PORTLAND, Maine - Democrats in Maine are sparring with a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate over a tweet that said leftists are importing new voters from other countries to try to win elections.State Sen. Eric Brakey is running against incumbent independent Sen. Angus King and Democrat Zak Ringelstein. Brakey tweeted on Sunday that the left has "failed at selling socialism to the American people'' and its new tactic is "mass importation of new voters to transform our political culture.''
 
Democrats decried the tweet as racist and anti-immigrant. Maine Democratic Party Chairman Phil Bartlett called it "bigotry'' and Ringelstein said Brakey should withdraw from the race.
 
Brakey pushed back at accusations that the tweet was racist, saying America's immigration system isn't "a poverty relief program.''
 
King, who caucuses with Democrats, didn't immediately respond.