18-year-old Lapeer school board candidate apologizes for racist tweets

Screenshot from Austin Franzel's Twitter profile

A screenshot from Austin Franzel's Twitter profile.

LAPEER, MI -- An 18-year-old candidate running for election to the Lapeer Community School's Board of Education is apologizing for sharing racist and homophobic tweets on social media.

Austin Franzel, who says his campaign is based on building a closer community, said the messages on Twitter were from a few years ago and don't represent his beliefs now.

"Last year was a year of growth for me," Franzel said. "I shouldn't have said those hateful, terrible things. I don't believe in any of those things now."

Screenshots of the tweets were obtained from the candidate's Twitter profile after an anonymous tip was emailed to MLive-The Flint Journal about the candidate's social media presence.

Franzel's Twitter profile displays tweets that compare the Black Lives Matter movement to the Ku Klux Klan and calling those supporting Black Girls Rock "racist monkeys."

Black Girls Rock is a nonprofit youth empowerment and mentoring organization established to promote the arts for young women of color, as well as to encourage dialogue and analysis of the ways women of color are portrayed in the media.

"I was personally upset because I thought they were attacking white girls and so I fought reverse racism with racism," Franzel said. "I know that is wrong now. I fully do not support that."

Franzel claims he's never seen a meme captioned "please cease your faggotry," posted on his Twitter profile, but he acknowledges that he does know the girl his account shows he tweeted it to.

"We actually grew up together, she's a little more liberal than me," Franzel said. "I don't remember sending her that picture."

AustinFranzel1.png


A screenshot from Austin Franzel's Twitter profile.

The 2008 presidential elections sparked Franzel's interest in politics. He said his grandfather, Golden Spurlock, was very involved and remembers the conversations he'd have about John McCain and Barack Obama over dinner.

"The election was a big deal to him and he was always expressing his stances on certain issues," Franzel said. "I wanted to develop my own stances on issues. I consider myself a conservative, but I believe my generation of conservatives are more socially aware than my grandfather's generation."

Franzel's grandfather grew up in southern Kentucky, and is very conservative he said.

"Being a conservative to me means believing God put us on Earth and created the nation for all people, granted, they need to come legally," Franzel said

Franzel has touted that he has been working closely with the Republican Party in Lapeer. He said he's spent time in the community with leaders such as State representatives Gary Glenn and Gary Howell.

"Gary Howell let me job shadow him in Lansing for a day," Franzel said. "I got to see the House vote on whether they want to get rid of no-fault insurance or not."

Howell declined to comment on Franzel's social media postings.

Glenn said this is a very unfortunate situation for Franzel.

"I feel really sorry for him because now he has to suffer the embarrassment of these things being exposed," Glenn said. "I think most of us wouldn't want to be judged for what we did or said when we were 17. For him, that's a year ago."

Franzel is the only candidate who has so far filed to run for the Board of Education election, deadline for registration is July 24 by 4 p.m.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.