Minnesota House candidate ends campaign after tweet about IS

Dan Kimmel, 63, announced the end of his bid for office on his campaign website and Twitter account. He says the tweet wasn’t in response to recent violence in Paris.

It also got the attention from Reddit users, with many saying people like Hitler and Stalin also thought they were doing what was “best for their community”. “Violence is not the answer, though”.

He had earlier clarified his first tweet: “I deplore the evil acts of ISIS”.

By Sunday morning, Kimmel apologized for the tweet, and put a statement titled “Evil” on his campaign website.

Dan Kimmel of Burnsville, Minn. said that his remarks on Twitter referred to a comment in a debate rather than the attacks in Paris. Nonetheless, he said in a statement that he was “folding up his campaign tent”.

“I am very sorry for “spreading ick” on other candidates and the [Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor] party”, Kimmel continued.

Following the attacks in Paris, ISIS ‘will try to build a similar attack capability in the United States’. My heart breaks for the people of France, of Paris, the families of those wounded or killed and the casualties themselves…. Kimmel’s tweets also were posted on his campaign’s Facebook page. He later issued a written apology and called his tweet “stupid”, adding that it’s probably best for him to “shut up” for the time being.

DFL party and legislative officials condemned Kimmel’s comments on the terrorist organization. Kimmel did not return a message left Sunday by The Associated Press.

Kimmel was up against 22-year-old GOP incumbent, Drew Christensen. Kimmel lost the seat to Christensen in 2014, by 12 percentage points.