A crowd of demonstrators showed up to the Crawford County Republican Party’s headquarters Wednesday evening to protest the appearance of controversial conservative activist Scott Presler. Presler first gained notoriety for his work with an anti-Muslim activist group and later for attending the Jan. 6 insurrection and promoting false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Retired schoolteacher Gloria Shields, one of the protest’s organizers, said Presler’s visit was “disheartening.”
“This country needs to heal, and inviting somebody in there like that isn’t going to do it,” Shields said. “We feel as though the Republican Party here needs to understand that there are people in this community that don’t want someone like him in our community.”
The event — a letter-writing and door-knocking workshop for local Republicans — started at 6 p.m. and was closed to the press. Meanwhile, protestors gathered across the street, holding signs and chanting, “No hate here.”
At 6:45, around 10 minutes after protestors dispersed on their own, Crawford County Republican Party Chair Jody Leech emerged from the building and told reporters the event was more or less over.
She also said that demonstrators’ concerns were unwarranted.
“I really don’t know why they were here because he (Presler) didn’t give me the indication that he’s a hater at all,” Leech said. “All he was doing is trying to get Republicans in office, trying to get people to register to vote. He was fine. He was very nice.”
Presler was originally in town to garner support for local Republican candidates, including City Council candidates Marcy Kantz and Bill Lawrence.
However, Lawrence later distanced himself from the event. A flyer posted on Facebook Tuesday, Sept. 19 was altered to remove his name and face, and he said the Young Republicans did not have permission to use his photo to promote the event.
“I had no plans to attend, promote or participate,” Lawrence wrote in a Facebook post the day of the event. “One day later, when I was made aware of the controversy surrounding his name, I quickly asked to have my name removed. In fact, I still know very little about Presler.”
Presler gained national attention in 2017 and was among the lead organizers of anti-Muslim group ACT! for America’s “March Against Sharia.” The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated ACT for America a hate group and calls it the largest of its kind in the United States.
After former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, Presler toured the country organizing “Stop the Steal” rallies and promoting unfounded claims of electoral fraud.
Leech defended Presler, saying that the activist only discussed issues like mail-in voting and voter registration at the event.
“He’ll tell you that he was against the results of the 2020 election and also the 2022 election, but it wasn’t in a hateful way,” Leech said. “Yes, he was at Jan. 6, but he wasn’t with the protesters that went to the Capitol and he wasn’t, obviously, arrested for anything.”
Presler tweeted a video from the grounds of the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, calling it “the greatest civil rights protest in American history.”
“Their lies are deadly,” Shields said. “Like my sign says, ‘Their lies are deadly,’and a lot of people have suffered because of the Big Lie, the ‘Stop the Steal’ that this guy promotes. It’s got to stop.”
Leech said that Allegheny students and the wider community were welcome to disagree with Presler, but that they should reserve judgment.
“They also need to know that everything they read and everything that they are told isn’t necessarily true,” Leech said of Allegheny students. “You need to hear the speech of some people to see whether you agree with them or don’t agree with them.”
Shields encouraged students to “pay attention” to what was happening in Meadville.
“Tell the students at Allegheny that I apologize for my generation, what we have done,” Shields said. “I hope that they do better — I don’t think they could do much worse.”