Rapid City School Board candidate tweet: 'Ready and willing to die taking out evil Democrats'

A61-year-old man running for School Board in Rapid City's Area 4 apologized for posting tweets calling for the execution of Democrats and saying he was "ready to die" taking them out.

Local businessman and Marine veteran Gerald Alvin Harvey II replied to a post from Barbara Lee, a California Democrat and then-candidate for House, on Twitter June 13, 2019, writing: "There will BE ANOTJER[sic] CIVIL WAR...AND EVER[sic] DEMOCRAT WILL BE EXICUTED[sic]..YOU HAVE F***ED MY COUNTRY UP ENOUGH. IM READY AND WILLING TO DIE TAKING OUT EVIL DEMOCRATS FOR MY VOUNTRY[sic] AND MY President..." That same day, also in response to Lee, Harvey wrote: "THERE WILL BE ANOTHER CIVIL WAR AND ALL OF YOU EVIL DEMOCRATS WILL BE EXICUTED[sic].. GO MAKE YOU EVIL C**TS."

Harvey admitted to the Journal during a nearly hour long phone call Wednesday night that he wrote those tweets and "was probably drinking" at the time. Harvey initially denied making the posts and said he was "not that radical," but after discussing the content of his Facebook page, Harvey admitted to making the posts.

"I'll apologize for that. I was probably in pain like I said, alright, because they don't give you no pain pills," he said. "And I probably had like two drinks or something. I was probably pissed off. I was exercising my first amendment right of freedom of speech."

Harvey is the only candidate so far in the 2023 school election cycle to have a political action committee (PAC) formed against him. The "We Can Do Better Than Gerald Harvey" PAC was formally incorporated Wednesday to prevent Harvey's election. PAC Chair and local attorney Kyle Krause told the Journal, Rapid City needs candidates who are able to work cooperatively and not be fighting a culture war.

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Harvey's social media posts originally attracted the PAC's attention.

"If there's a conspiracy theory that exists, Gerald Harvey has probably posted about it on his Facebook page," Krause said.

Krause said he doesn't hold out much hope Harvey will withdraw from the election, and reiterated "someone who's threatening to execute people over political views" isn't "someone who has the temperament to bring people together on the school board."

Harvey also has a history of legal issues.

In 2015, a woman obtained two previous protective orders against Harvey in Pennington County, according to court records. A temporary protection order request was dismissed in October 2015 for lack of sufficient evidence, while a permanent protective order was granted in December of that year and allowed to expire seven months later. Harvey said he never hit her, but that he was yelling.

When asked if there were any domestic abuse cases filed against him, Harvey said he had "a domestic thing" with a separate woman "about 35 years ago," where he slapped her. He followed by saying he doesn't believe hitting women is right, but that he grew up "in a different time."

"Why did I do it? I slapped her. She, uh...whatever. I lost control," Harvey said.

Harvey's court record shows a 2014 charge with three counts of making threatening or harassing calls in Pennington County. Those charges were later dismissed. California court records show he pleaded "no contest" to hit-and-run and resisting or obstructing a peace officer in 2005 in El Dorado County.

The Journal called multiple times and left a voicemail with Harvey Thursday afternoon and Friday morning to ask about his criminal history and the political action committee formed against him, but Harvey did not respond by Friday at noon.

During the Wednesday call with the Journal, Harvey expressed his desire to get rid of the Department of Education; put reading, writing and arithmetic back in schools; and get rid of the gender pronouns, calling transgenderism a mental illness and characterizing it as child abuse. He advocated for teaching patriotism in schools.

Harvey espoused a number of false conspiracy theories, like the belief that the government is poisoning citizens through "chem trails", there are dangerous preservatives in children's food, and he believes the 2020 election was stolen.

"How can it be a conspiracy theory when all the conspiracy theorists are right? It's not a theory; that s**t's poison," he said. "Why would they do that? Why would they spend billions of dollars of our taxpayer dollars and put chemicals in the sky?"

As of Friday morning, Harvey had not deleted any of the tweets from his account. He posted on Facebook Wednesday following his phone call with the Journal that he "repents" for the "very angry" thoughts he posted.

"I repent," he wrote. "It was brought to my attention tonight that I posted some very angry thought[sic] on my twitter back in 2019? I repent."

Area 4 covers most of Rapid City's north side from roughly North Street to the Meade County line and west of LaCrosse Street. The Rapid City Area Schools Board of Education election is set for Tuesday, June 6. Harvey is running against Amy Sazue, Walter Swan Jr., and Karen Woods for the seat.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Rapid City School Board candidate tweet: 'Ready and willing to die taking out evil Democrats'