A presidential elector from Indiana who has been involved in local Republican Party politics for years once set a makeshift cross soaked in gasoline ablaze outside the home of a horrified biracial family.
Allen Stevens, a GOP political figure in Indiana, is listed among his state’s slate of presidential electors as a representative vote for Congressional District 3. A resurfaced report about an arrest over 30 years ago raised new questions.
The incident in Union Mills, Indiana, still disturbs the woman, who recounted the event for a local news article in 2022. She detailed the night in March 1993 when she watched a “six-foot gasoline-soaked cross burning at night” in front of her home, according to Indiana radio station WCOE-WLOI.
The report noted that Stevens, who has served as a local GOP county chairman, “told investigators his actions were not motivated by racial hatred.”
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“I’m far from a racist. I got a track record that proves otherwise,” Stevens said in the report.
Around the same time the article was published, Stevens issued a statement acknowledging the incident and adding his own explanation.
“We attempted to take justice into our own hands in a horribly shortsighted and ill-conceived way,” Stevens said in the Oct. 25, 2022, release about him and a friend. “The local media widely reported the incident at that time, and because it occurred at a black family’s house, it was presumed to be racially motivated.”
He added that he has since “owned up to my mistake” and pointed out that he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor trespassing charge, for which he said he was sentenced to 180 days probation, 20 hours of community service, and fined $50.
“As the police documents from the time describe, and I restate now, this was never meant to send a message of racial hatred,” he said.
The U.S. Constitution has very limited provisions for the qualifications of electors, according to the National Archives. It added that a state's certification of its electors "is generally sufficient to establish the qualifications of electors."
