An Ohio sheriff this weekend urged residents in his county to collect the addresses of homes sporting signs for Vice President Kamala Harris, arbitrarily suggesting that there would be an influx of undocumented immigrants if she wins the presidential race.
Bruce Zuchowski, the sheriff of Portage County who is seeking reelection, made the incendiary remarks Friday in two identical posts on his personal and professional Facebook accounts.
“I say … write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!” Zuchowski (R) said. That way, he said, when undocumented immigrants — which he referred to as a “locust” — flooded in, “We’ll already have the addresses of their New families … who supported their arrival!”
The sheriff’s posts sparked tension across Portage County, which President Donald Trump carried by 12 points in the 2020 election. Some residents accused Zuchowski of voter intimidation ahead of November’s election. One Republican official described the post as “bullying” and stepped down from a role with a county GOP committee, the Portager reported.
Alongside his caption, Zuchowski posted photos of Fox News coverage showing footage from Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colo. — two cities that have been in the national spotlight in recent weeks as former president Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have publicly repeated baseless, inflammatory claims about the immigrant communities there.
Comments are limited on both of Zuchowski’s posts. He did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment Monday evening.
In Monday posts on X, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio condemned Zuchowski’s comments, adding that putting up political signs was “most decidedly, protected core First Amendment speech.”
“For the sitting sheriff of Portage County to be engaging in the very type of behavior he’s meant to combat is despicable,” the organization wrote.
Since Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket in July, she and Trump have publicly criticized each other’s border and immigration policies. Republicans have been lashing out against Harris by characterizing her as a failed “border czar.” Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden directed Harris to address the root causes of migration, but she was never put in charge of the border. Harris and the Democratic Party have cited the messaging of the far-right Project 2025, a proposal including mass deportations that Trump has tried to distance himself from, to dissuade voters from supporting a second Trump term.
In recent weeks, Trump and Vance have taken the immigration-policy-based criticisms to a new level by repeating unsubstantiated comments about Haitian immigrants in Springfield. They falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in the town.
During the presidential debate last week, Trump repeated the Springfield rumor. Though he was fact-checked by a moderator — Ohio officials have denied the claims — it was too late.
The rumor had already spiraled into an onslaught of racist memes and anti-immigrant sentiments online. In the days since the debate, Springfield has received threats of violence. Schools, the city hall and other government buildings were evacuated last week after bomb threats.
Of the TV news photos Zuchowski posted Friday, one showed Springfield with the chyron: “Kamala’s open borders are destroying small towns.” Zuchowski wrote that if residents made note of the homes with Harris campaign signage, they would “already have the addresses” of immigrants who came to Portage County after the election. He also took a jab at Harris’s laugh, another dig Trump and his allies have used against the vice president.
The posts stoked fear across Portage County residents, said Reney Romine, president of the county’s NAACP chapter. Portage County, which is about 180 miles northeast of Clark County, where Springfield is located, is a predominantly White area with lower-than-average immigration.
Since Sunday, Romine said she’s received calls and texts “constantly” from community members about the Facebook posts. They’ve told her they’re considering removing their yard signs. Some have said they feel unsure now about requesting help from the sheriff’s office. Others are worried about their safety while casting their ballot on Election Day.
“It’s hard to hear,” Romine said. “It’s hard to see.”
Anthony Badalamenti, a Republican county commissioner, said in a video that he would resign from the county’s Republican Central Committee, according to the Portager.
Zuchowski’s call to write down addresses, Badalamenti said, “prompted” him to make the video, in which he said the remark “scares people, it’s called bullying from the highest law enforcement in Portage County.”
Romine said the local NAACP chapter called an emergency meeting for later this week to talk about how to address the community’s concerns ahead of November.
“What a world it would be if we could all have our own opinions and still get along in that space,” she said. “You know, what happened to that?”