Convicted felon Larry Sinclair is running to be the next mayor of Cocoa, Florida. Strangely enough, the gay man’s ridiculous claims that he had sex with former-President Barack Obama and the national ridicule he endured hasn’t been an issue in the race.
Sinclair is running against two Democrats in the nonpartisan race and neither of his opponents have purposefully ignored Sinclair’s criminal past or fantastical claim of “outing” the former president.
“I do believe that the voters are smarter than the candidates give them credit for,” one of the opposing candidates, Cocoa City Council member Clarence Whipple Jr., told Florida Today. “But I’m not going to send stuff out on it. I’m not questioning his rehabilitation.”
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Former City Council member Jake Williams Jr. Both, the other candidate, wouldn’t speak to the paper about Sinclair’s past.
Sinclair became infamous after he held a press conference at the National Press Club to claim he had smoked crack with Obama and had sex with him twice in 1999. Sinclair’s outrageous claims without any proof made him a national laughing stock, but spurred even more far right conspiracy theories after being picked up by outlets like Alex Jones’ InfoWars.
He also claimed Obama had ordered the murder of one of his former lovers before when he decided to run for president. Neither allegation was ever proven, of course.
Sinclair has multiple convictions for fraud, larceny and forgery. He has served time in Colorado, Florida and Arizona prisons.
“I’ve been on both sides of the wall, OK? I’ve been on both sides of cops. I’ve been on both sides of the jail cell,” Sinclair said in an interview with Florida Today. “I don’t hide from anything I’ve ever done in my life, and I don’t excuse it, and I’m not hiding from it now. I am very open about who I am, what I have done and what I am doing and will continue to do regardless of how this election turns out.”
While the mayoral candidates have quietly told voters to research Sinclair’s past without making a big deal of it themselves, other politicians aren’t as reserved.
“He doesn’t have a filter. He’s loud and obnoxious at times. He doesn’t understand that you often can accomplish something more with kind words than a baseball bat,” District 2 Cocoa City Council member Brenda Warner said. “I don’t need a mayor to have us be on the front page of the paper every week.”
Lorraine Koss, a candidate for Cocoa City Council in District 4, also isn’t a Sinclair supporter.
“Larry Sinclair is a very provocative personality,” she said. “He has a history of poor decision-making. I would have to say it would create a very bad image of Cocoa to elect him. I’m just concerned for the good image of Cocoa.”
