How Loren Culp’s book tour turned into a campaign for Washington governor

Vernon Johnson, a political science professor who directs Western Washington University’s Ralph Munro Institute for Civic Education, said Culp may not be trying to cultivate support among racists, armed militia members or white supremacists. But, at a minimum, Culp’s experience as a police chief in a rural county where less than 1% of the population is Black seems to have left him with an incomplete understanding of the role racism plays in U.S. society, Johnson said. 

“I don’t think he has much of an understanding of race, but I don’t think race is driving him,” Johnson said.

At the same time, Johnson said, “I think the racists and the white nationalists will vote for him.”