Cruz Campaign Will Host Super Tuesday Watch Party At Venue Of Radio Host With Long History Of Bigoted Rhetoric

The Houston area “Redneck County Club” will host the Super Tuesday watch party tonight of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. The venue was founded by the Texas radio host Michael Berry, whose history of bigoted rhetoric and programming has not prevented the senator from welcoming his longtime friendship and support.

Houston's KPRC reported that the Cruz campaign will be watching the results from Stafford, TX, and identified Berry's bar and music venue as the “campaign headquarters.” An online invitation to the Stafford watch party from the Cruz campaign confirmed the site of “Ted Cruz Election Night Watch Party” is the Red Neck Country Club.

Cruz's decision to use Berry's club as his election watch party venue comes as no surprise as Cruz and Berry have been friends for "over twenty years." Berry's radio show -- The Michael Berry Show -- is often packed with racially inflammatory language. The host has referred to black people as "jungle animals" and often mocks black victims of Chicago's gun violence. He regularly rejects civil rights advocacy and once said in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, “the dirty little secret is black people don't believe that black lives matter.” The host also often hosts a blackface comedian, whose stage name is “Shirley Q. Liquor,” to portray racist stereotypes of African-American women.

Berry also uses social media to share images that often portray black people as criminals and promote white people as more law abiding.

The country music-themed club where Cruz will reportedly watch the Super Tuesday results advertises itself as both a live music venue and a restaurant where "good people" can be around other “like-minded people.” One of the attractions of the bar is a full-size replica of the General Lee car, which boasts a Confederate battle flag spanning the roof. Berry's affinity for the confederate flag goes beyond nostalgia for the Dukes of Hazard. During the debate over the flag's place in front of South Carolina's state capital following the murder of nine black worshipers at a historical black church in Charleston, SC, Berry said the flag simply represented the "heritage of the state." The host criticized those calling for the removal of the flag, asking if the shooter in South Carolina had been Muslim would society "outlaw the Koran? Outlaw the mosque? Would we outlaw the prayer rug?"