KILLINGLY - A 20-year-old Republican candidate for the Killingly Board of Education said Friday he severed his ties with a self-described “constitutional nationalist” right-wing group after concluding the organization did not line up with his beliefs.

Dayville resident Jason Muscara said he joined the Connecticut chapter of the American Guard group, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed a “general hate group,” two years ago after an introduction by a family friend.

“I was told it was a patriotic group and I trusted that information,” Muscara said during a phone interview. “But I learned the group did not reflect my beliefs or morals and I left a year ago.”

Want to make sure your news is on time? Sign up for our newsletters.

Muscara, a Killingly High graduate and founder and president of the Quinebaug Valley Community College Student Republicans group, said he was at one point appointed to the position of vice president of the Connecticut American Guard, but declined to go into detail about how frequently he attended meetings or what specifically led him to leave.

“The organization was fairly new when I joined, but I decided it was not something I wanted to be associated with,” he said.

The American Guard was first founded in 2016 as the Indiana chapter of the Soldiers of Odin group by Brien James, who the Southern Poverty Law Center described as someone who “stood out, albeit for all the wrong reasons,” in the violent world of “racist skinhead subculture.”

Muscara said he last year attended rallies in Boston and Providence hosted by the Resist Marxism group that media reports said featured anti-LGBTQ activists and scuffles with counter-protesters.

“I’m very active politically; I’m a big supporter of free speech and the Second Amendment,” Muscara said. “And I attended those rallies as an individual and not as a member of any group.”

Muscara announced his candidacy for the school board during a contentious June meeting held to discuss the fate of the Redmen mascot, a Native American-themed logo long used at the town’s high school.

The board ultimately, and after consultation with a local tribe, opted to replace the mascot, a decision Muscara, a Killingly High graduate, said was mishandled.

In a June 23 letter to The Bulletin days before the school board meeting, Muscara questioned the offensiveness of the mascot.

“Is there evidence to prove something offensive, or is being offended a state of mind for which there is no proof?” he wrote.

Muscara, who said he’s running on a platform of school security, said he learned recently that information about his connections to the American Guard was being shared on various social media sites.

Join the conversation on Facebook and connect with us on Twitter

“They are trying to defame me and my character,” he said. “I have no plans to drop out of the race. I will see it through. I saw in high school and in higher education that there’s not a lot of support for people with different ideas who want to express them.”

Chris Dillon, acting chairman of the Killingly Republican Town Committee, which endorsed Muscara, said the candidate had been "open" with committee about his previous affiliation with the American Guard.

"He let us know he was in this group and had come to realize it did not align with his beliefs and he should be commended for leaving when he learned the group was not what he envisioned it to be," Dillon said. "I had heard of the group in passing, but was not very familiar with it, what it was tied to or what its fringe members might be involved in."

Dillon said he’s disappointed in what he sees as a Democratic smear campaign against Muscara, a member of the committee for years. He said such actions could have a chilling effect on new candidates’ interest in running for office.

"We don’t have the budget to do a full vetting on every candidate," he said. "If someone shows a willingness to serve and is passionate about the community, like Jason, we will support them."

Municipal elections are scheduled for Nov. 5.