Senator Sylvia Allen Is Getting Heat For Recent Statements That Are Being Called “Racist”

Republican Senator Sylvia Allen is getting some heat from Democrats over recent statements she made earlier this month, they say are racist. The “Phoenix New Times” obtained a recording from an event where she expressed fear that the United States is “going to look like South American countries very quickly.” Allen also said at the event that white birthrates are declining and that new immigrants “flooding” into the U.S. will not be able to learn “the principles of our country.” Allen said in a statement Tuesday that “my reference to South America was about the concern that these countries are socialist and we must preserve our Constitutional Republic form of government.” Allen decided to run for re-election to the state senate in 2020 after initially deciding against it. She is running against Representative Bob Thorpe and Wendy Rogers on the Republican side. Rogers called Allen’s statements “very racist” and called on her to retire. Democrats are calling for Allen to be removed as chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. When asked if this situation was similar to what Prescott Representative David Stringer went through, Governor Doug Ducey staunchly defended Allen Tuesday, denying that the two instances were similar. Stringer was removed as a Representative earlier this year after making racial remarks and having past legal issues surface in Maryland in the 1980s.