NY Senate Candidate Promises ‘Kool Aid, KFC and Watermelons' at Harlem Campaign Event

Jon Girodes said there was nothing offensive about his planned event

A candidate for New York State Senate has sparked a firestorm in Harlem after telling NBC 4 New York's I-Team he was planning to hand out “Kool Aid, KFC and watermelons” at a campaign event in the primarily black community.

Jon Girodes, the Republican candidate for New York’s 30th District, used the racially stereotypical food reference in an email to the I-Team during an exchange about a disputed real estate deal.

The incumbent, who headlined his campaign website with an image of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said there was nothing offensive about his planned event.

“What I think is anyone who gives free food to people is doing them a favor,” Girodes told the I-Team. “Get a bunch of people who say it’s offensive and let me go into their neighborhood and give it out for free and see if they take it.”

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