Several Democrat-prompted media reports have tried desperately to link the Republican Party of Sarasota County with the Proud Boys. It’s understandable. Their candidates for Sarasota County School Board are tarred with the deeply unpopular controversies of critical race theory, hyper sexualized school curriculum and increasing efforts to enforce a trans indoctrination in our public schools — all of which are deeply opposed by Sarasota County parents.

Those terrible ideas are also opposed by Republican Party-backed School Board candidates Bridget Ziegler, Tim Enos and Robyn Marinelli.

Democrat operatives understand how unpopular those issues are, and so the old playbook of deflect-and-smear is pulled out. They have continually tried to link School Board candidates promising to put parental rights and children’s education first to the Proud Boys. That has now been expanded to the local Republican Party. This playbook has been used repeatedly in recent elections cycles for legislators and as usual, it’s tenuous to non-existent.

So let’s be clear: The Republican Party of Sarasota County is not affiliated with the Proud Boys and will not be. We don’t even know what all they believe because it is impossible to trust any media coverage. We are not a part of that group and that group is not a part of our Party. But we also do not and will not vet every individual American who wants to get involved, sifting through every organization they are or have been part of or grill them on any unclean thoughts. We are not the thought control police that the Democratic Party has become.

Let’s also be clear: This is a smear campaign against School Board candidates and the local Republican Party for the sole reason that the Democrat candidates are being smothered in their own deeply unpopular ideas, and their large financial war chests may not be enough to overcome that.

We hope this unequivocal statement ends the smears, but we know better. The Democrats will continue to run the deflect-and-smear playbook and their media will continue to help them.

Jack Brill is acting chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota County.