A City Council member in Enid, Oklahoma, defended marching alongside white nationalists in Virginia in 2017 at a public forum Tuesday night where he was questioned about his connections to racist groups.

Judd Blevins, who faces a recall election next week, declined to provide details of his prior white nationalist activism. Asked about the groups he was affiliated with, including Identity Evropa, once one of the largest U.S. white nationalist organizations, Blevins said those groups no longer exist. He also defended his actions.

“If speaking out against what was being done to this country, what is continuing to be done to this country, is a crime, then I would gladly plead guilty to that,” he said.

Answering a follow-up question, Blevins, a former Marine, said the purpose of his prior activism was “the same issues that got Donald Trump elected in 2016: securing America’s borders, reforming our legal immigration system and frankly, pushing back on this anti-white hatred that is so common in media and entertainment.”

He said he has never identified as a white nationalist or a white supremacist.
Blevins won his seat representing Ward 1 on Enid’s six-member City Council last year. His ties to white nationalist organizations — including his participation in the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in Virginia — had been publicly reported but became widely known in Enid only after his election, spurring a campaign to unseat him.

Blevins’ challenger, Cheryl Patterson, directly addressed his white nationalist ties for the first time at Tuesday’s forum.

“It’s time to restore our reputation,” said Patterson, a grandmother, former teacher and longtime Republican.

Patterson outlined the threat she believes Blevins poses to the city’s military base and future growth.

“I fear that his recent past puts our Air Force base at risk and jeopardizes our ability to recruit businesses to Enid,” she said. “There is no place for hate in Enid.”