Renzo Olivari, a spokesperson for Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, has apologized for past Twitter posts.
“Terry McAuliffe’s comms guy kinda sounds like a racist,” Arthur Schwartz tweeted, along with images of two 2012 tweets from Olivari.
One tweet said “#TweetLikeAGuy going out with da nigguhs” and another said “#ThingsBlackFolksNeverThrowAway broken lamps.”
Fox News reported that the tweets have been deleted, but the outlet said it obtained screenshots prior to when the tweets were taken down.
“As a person of color, I have tried to live my whole life fighting for communities like mine,” Olivari said in a statement to the outlet. “When I was in high school student, I tweeted things that were clearly unacceptable.”
He also noted, “I am ashamed and I profoundly regret what I tweeted. I take full responsibility and I want to profoundly apologize and use this as a moment to grow and learn from my mistakes. I will continue working to fight for communities like mine in every way that I can.”
Olivari’s Twitter bio says he does “Comms for @TerryMcAuliffe.” He also describes himself as an “Alum of @JoeBiden , @Mike2020 , @KamalaHarris , @NVDems , @VADemocrats , & @JMU.”
McAuliffe, who previously served as governor of Virginia from early 2014 until early 2018, is aiming to defeat Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin during the state’s gubernatorial election on Tuesday next week.