Note: This story has been updated with a response from Ocean View School Board candidate Gracey Van Der Mark.

The Republican Party of Orange County this week endorsed a controversial school board candidate who earlier this year was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for her “alleged anti-Semitic and racist” social media posts.

Gracey Van Der Mark, a Latina small-business owner from Huntington Beach who is running for the Ocean View School Board, was removed from committees in two local school districts in April after parents and the ADL complained about her online activities and her affiliations with people they alleged “promote white nationalism.”

Reached by phone this week, Van Der Mark refused to answer questions about the online posts or her affiliations, other than saying, “My words have been twisted.” Days later, she emailed a statement alleging that the “unfair and unfounded accusations” against her are part of a smear campaign engineered by opponents of the GOP.

“I am not who my political opponents say I am,” Van Der Mark said. “I am a mother who wants to make a positive difference for our students and plan to work as hard as I can to do so.”

Most notably, the ADL accused Van Der Mark of making Islamaphobic statements, on a since-deleted Facebook account, saying that in May 2017 she wrote that the U.S. Department of Education was funding an Islamic indoctrination program.

In Aug. 2017, Van Der Mark attended a protest that disrupted a Santa Monica Committee for Racial Justice meeting. There, 50 protesters chanted that the event was organized by “black supremacists and Jewish supremacists.” Afterward, a YouTube account with Van Der Mark’s name and photo posted that the meeting was “being ran by the elderly Jewish people” and that “the colored people were there doing what the elderly Jewish people instructed them to do.”

Additionally, Van Der Mark has posed for photos with, and protested alongside, people that the Southern Poverty Law Center have identified as members of radical anti-government organizations, including people who have publicly recited neo-Nazi slogans and advocated for violence at rallies.

In her emailed statement, sent Friday afternoon, Van Der Mark tried to clarify the social media messages she posted after the 2017 Santa Monica protest.

“I am a former Democrat who attended a training on ‘white privilege’ in Santa Monica,” Van Der Mark wrote. “I disagreed with the contents of the training and felt it belittled me as a minority woman. On social media, I described the meeting as it was explained to me by one of the organizers. Those were her words and not mine. I posted those comments to expose how we were viewed by those organizing the event. I regret not being clearer in my posting.”

At a Huntington Beach City Council meeting in May, Van Der Mark denied that she’s racist and said she is of Mexican and Ecuadorian descent. Van Der Mark said she considers herself a “colored person” and finds the phrase inoffensive, noting that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People uses the term. She also blamed her removal from the school committees on liberals who are “intolerant of diverse viewpoints.”

Fred Whitaker, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, defended the endorsement, which the party’s central committee approved Monday.

Whitaker said the county GOP fully vets its endorsed candidates. He asserted that Van Der Mark’s statements had been “taken out of context.” And he noted that the “quote in question” already had been “reviewed in full context by Huntington Beach officials.” In May, an investigation by Huntington Beach City Councilman Patrick Brenden found insufficient evidence to remove Van Der Mark from the city’s finance commission.

“Our committee reviewed Gracey in full context of her positions and who she is as a person,” Whitaker said. “We are proud to endorse a young Latina mother trying to improve her local school district.”

The Republican Party of Orange County declined to answer questions about its vetting process and wouldn’t say how Van Der Mark’s statements had been taken out of context. Brenden did not return calls for comment.

Newport Beach Councilman Scott Peotter, a GOP central committee member, said he voted to endorse Van Der Mark because he assumed county Republicans had vetted the allegations. But Yorba Linda Mayor Gene Hernandez, who sits on the county’s GOP endorsements committee, said he wasn’t made aware of the accusations against Van Der Mark.

“I had no clue,” Hernandez said. “That is clearly a problem. I don’t want to rush to judgment… . Had I known, I would have at least questioned why this controversy was swirling around her.”

On Thursday, the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement condemning the Orange County GOP for its endorsement

“That the OC GOP would make Ms. Larrea-Van Der Mark its sole endorsed candidate in this race — especially over other Republican candidates — is both shocking and telling of the message the party is sending to its constituency,” said Hussam Ayloush, the council’s executive director.

Five candidates are running for three seats on the Ocean View School Board. At least four of those candidates are Republicans.

Van Der Mark is sometimes publicly referred to as Larrea-Van Der Mark, but she filed for candidacy using her un-hyphenated name.

Shortly after Van Der Mark earned the county GOP’s endorsement, U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) tweeted a photo with her, voicing his support.

On Thursday, Rohrabacher’s campaign issued a statement calling Van Der Mark a “dedicated and compassionate” parent who had been “subjected to a vicious smear campaign by the most extreme elements of the far left.” Rohrabacher’s political opponent, Democrat Harley Rouda, accused the congressman of “embracing hate.”