A Texas conservative running for Dallas County Commissioner has no shame about giving his children a lot of encouragement to marry within their race.
In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, candidate Vickers Cunningham admitted to rewarding his kids with money from a living trust if they married someone of the opposite sex, who was also white.
“I strongly support traditional family values … If you marry a person of the opposite sex that’s Caucasian, that’s Christian, they will get a distribution,” Cunningham told the paper of the trust fund he set up for his children in 2010.
“There are milestones set out in the trust,” he explained. “The milestone is [they’ll] get a distribution if they get an advanced degree. A milestone if you run for public office. When you turn 35, 40, 45, you get a distribution. The same thing … when you get married. It’s my religious belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.”
The revelation comes on the heels of damning claims made by Cunningham’s estranged brother, Bill Cunningham, who said the candidate has harbored racist views for years and has been unaccepting of his interracial, same-sex marriage. Last week, Bill Cunningham told The Dallas Morning News that his brother repeatedly referred to his husband, who is Black, as “your boy” and refused to have them at his home.
In another article, a family member and a former staffer claimed the former judge would frequently use the N-word. Even Cunningham’s own mother, Mina Cunningham, confirmed his bigoted ways to the newspaper.
“All I can do is apologize for Vic and this way that he thinks,” she said. “He’s so bigoted and so forth as we all know.:
Cunningham, who has served as a Dallas County judge for 10 years, has vehemently denied the claims. He said his views on interracial marriage have evolved since crafting the financial incentives, particularly after his son married a Vietnamese woman. The candidate claimed it was too little, too late to change the terms of the trust, however.
His so-called evolution has done little to quell the backlash from his comments. Newsweek reported that the Dallas Morning News has since rescinded its support from Cunningham, who it had previously endorsed for the Precinct 2 Seat on the Dallas County Commissioners Court.
“Recent developments have caused us to reconsider, and we are withdrawing our recommendation of Cunningham,” the newspaper announced.
We withdraw Vickers Cunningham recommendation in GOP runoff for Dallas County Commissioners Court Precinct 2 | @DMNopinionhttps://t.co/VkrkzP5mZT
— Dallas Morning News (@dallasnews) May 19, 2018
