Former KKK leader once jailed for beating black man announces run for commissioner of Georgia county: GOP candidate claims he ‘reformed’ with help of black preacher in 2020 and is now ‘white civil rights activist’

• Chester Doles is a former Ku Klux Klan leader who served time for beating a black man in 1993, but now claims he’s a changed man
• He is running as a Republican for the Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners  
• Felons can hold elected office in Georgia if they get their civil rights restored and if at least 10 years have passed from the time they completed their sentence
• He said a criminal record is not reason to be disqualified from running for office 
• Doles called himself a ‘white civil rights activist’, and is styling himself as an anti-woke crusader after likening himself to the late Rep. John Lewis
• Doles was released from prison on firearms charges in 2007
• This means that he has passed that 10 year threshold
• Doles served time in prison for the 1993 beating of a black man in Maryland
• He also spent time behind bars on a weapons violations in Georgia
• Doles has been associated with the Hammerskins, a racist skinhead gang
• He marched with the gang at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.  
• Doles said he publicly denounces racism and believes that he could win 

A former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who spent time in prison for beating a black man is running for office in Georgia as a GOP ‘white civil rights activist.’

Chester Doles, 61, was once known as the Grand Klaliff of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Maryland, and made multiple appearances on TV and in newspapers to share his racist beliefs. 

In a recent interview, CBS46 asked Doles if he denounced racism and he responded, ‘I do publicly denounce racism, yes ma’am,’ Doles responded.  

Doles said a criminal record should not disqualify someone from public office and compared himself to civil rights activists including the late Rep. John Lewis who have held public office despite their pasts. 

‘If you look at Hosea Williams, he was on the City Council, he was arrested 168 times. Congressman John Lewis, he was arrested 68 times, so that’s not a reason to disqualify someone,’ Doles said. ‘Don’t matter if you’re out there for the civil rights movement, than I’m a white civil rights activist then.’    

Chester Dole, 61, (pictured on campaign trail) a former Ku Klux Klan leader who served time for beating a black man, is running as a Republican for the Board of Commissioners in Georgia

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Doles was sentenced to prison for the 1993 beating of a Black man in Maryland and again on weapons violations in Georgia. Pictured in 1992 in a KKK hat 

Doles, 61, was once known as the Grand Klaliff of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and has been featured in many newspaper clippings from the early 1990s

Doles has been front and center of photos from KKK marches in newspaper clippings from the early 1990s, but claims to have reformed his racist ways in 2020 with the help of a black Republican preacher – and now claims he’s fit for office. 

Doles also marched with the Hammerskins, a racist skinhead gang, and at the notorious 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the murder of protester Heather Hayes. 

But the convicted felon, who claims to have ‘renounced racism’ in 2020, told CBS46 in early March that he’s a reformed man and is now fully qualified to run as a Republican for a seat on the Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners in Georgia.   

Doles told CBS46 in March that a criminal record should not disqualify someone from public office and compared himself to civil rights activists who have held public office despite arrests

Doles’s prison time dates back to 1993 when he was convicted of beating of a black man in Maryland, and served four years for the crime. He spent another four years in 2003 on weapons violations in Georgia, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

Doles told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the incidents were each ‘misunderstandings or extenuating circumstances.’

Doles was also arrested In 2016 after a brawl at a bar, where authorities reportedly identified him as a leader in the Hammerskins. He was sentenced to probation. 

In early March, CBS46 looked into how a convicted felon was able to get on the ballot for the commissioner seat.   

According to Georgia code, felons can hold elected office in Georgia if they get their civil rights restored and if at least 10 years have passed from the time they completed their sentence, CBS46 found. 

Doles was released from federal prison on weapons charges in 2007, which means he had passed the 10 year threshold. 

Doles is pictured in 1992, at the height of his ‘career’ as a KKK member 

Doles is a longtime white supremacist who spent decades in the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi National Alliance (pictured at a Trump rally last year)

In 2019, Doles started a new organization called American Patriots USA, a group supportive of President Donald Trump

In a March 8 tweet, Doles said he had fully qualified for the Lumpkin County commission candidacy and has been campaigning ever since. 

In a recent campaign photo, he’s seen holding signs that reads ‘Stop Socialism. Save America,’ which is a slogan from Georgia’s controversial Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who Doles supports.   

‘This sick insane culture of wokeness is destroying America. These people want us gone. We American patriots are the new most endangered species,’ Doles said to a crowd on the campaign trail. 

Doles said his main policy would be the ‘guardian of the educational system of Lumpkin County, to keep out Critical Race Theory.’ 

‘It’s Marxist,’ he added. ‘It’s trying to put a sense of white guilt into young white children. It needs to be abolished.’  

The primary election is scheduled for May 24.

Chester Doles and armed militia and pro-Trump supporters in front of the Georgia Capital

Doles, who had attempted to insinuate himself into Republican politics in 2020, said he renounced his past while maintaining ties with longtime friends in the white supremacist movement.

In 2019, Doles started a new organization called American Patriots USA, a group supportive of President Donald Trump but stayed deeply tied to the far-right militia movement.

Doles endorsed several long shot political candidates in the 2020 election, but also attempted to tie himself to Greene, who had Doles removed from an event. 

Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler posed for a photo with Doles in 2020 that circulated on social media leading to an outcry from activists.

Her campaign said she ‘had no idea’ who Doles was when she took a picture with him, her campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson said in a statement to The Associated Press in 2020. 

‘Kelly had no idea who that was, and if she had she would have kicked him out immediately because we condemn in the most vociferous terms everything that he stands for,’ Lawson said. 

Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s campaign have insisted that she ‘had no idea’ who ex Ku Klux Klan leader Chester Doles was when she posed for a photo (pictured) with him at a recent event

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