Guild seen – later admits to – removing opponent’s campaign signs

Last Updated on June 25, 2018, 11:55 PM | Published: June 25, 2018

Democrat Tom Guild was seen pulling up an opponent’s campaign signs just as the afternoon rush hour was starting in Oklahoma City Monday.

Guild is one of six contenders for the Democratic Party’s nomination to run for Congressional 5th District seat in November.

The opponent whose signs Guild was pulling up was Kendra Horn, one of the front-runners for the Democratic Party nomination.

Later, he admitted to removing Horn’s campaign signs.

Admission

“Sometimes, in the heat and rush of a campaign, mistakes are made,” Guild said in a statement later Monday. “On reflection, removing some of my opponent’s signs — for any reason — was a mistake on my part for which I sincerely apologize.”

It was less than 24 hours before polls open Tuesday for what some anticipate will be one the most active primaries in recent election cycles.

Accidental sighting

Mark Mann, one of the OKCPS Board members, originally thought he was seeing Guild putting out campaign signs.

Mann posted a photo of Guild bending over, but the view was blocked by a car between them.

But it was the post accompanying the photo that made it go viral in the Metro.

The Democratic primary for CD 5 just got real! At 36th and Classen I just saw candidate Tom Guild pulling the plastic signs off of the metal frames for his opponent Kendra Horn. He then walked off and got into a two door sporty BMW. I guess it could get worse- he could take the frame as well when pulling up Horn’s signs!

After Mann made it to a meeting of the Board, he talked to Free Press about his reaction.

“I just couldn’t believe that someone running for Congress in the middle of the day was out on the side of the street pulling up their opponent’s signs in broad daylight,” said Mann.

“I was just a little shocked by it. It’s kind of poor judgment to say the least.”

Security video

Some of Guild’s supporters questioned if it was really Guild and that there was no real evidence of what Mann was saying.

But, one Free Press source provided this building security camera video that seems to show a man with the same clothes and car described by Mann casually pulling off the plastic parts of Horn’s signs and throwing them down to the ground.

Horn’s reaction

“The election isn’t about yard signs. They don’t win elections,” Horn told Free Press later in the evening.

Instead, she was eager to shift the conversation back to what she considers to be core issues.

“I’ve been running on issues from day one about making sure that health care is affordable, holding insurance companies accountable, to see that we’re investing in education and doing the things that are really important to Oklahomans and Oklahoma voters,” Horn said.

Jumping ship

But some of Guild’s active supporters were not so gracious about the incident that could not help but reflect on the judgment of Guild.

Gregory Hardin II posted soon after Mann’s video went viral that he was pulling his support.

“After seeing what Tom Guild did today to sabotage another campaign, I cannot continue to work for him and support him,” Hardin wrote.

“I have resigned from his campaign and tomorrow I will be voting for Elysabeth Britt in the CD5 Democratic primary.”

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