And you thought YOUR dad was controlling.

Interracial marriage became fully legal in 1967, and same sex marriage received the same protections in 2015, but Republican county commissioner candidate Vickers “Vic” Cunningham seems to have missed the memo.

With just a few days left in a vicious GOP runoff campaign, the former criminal judge and healthcare honcho admitted to The Dallas Morning News this week that his living trust “rewards” his children for picking out life partners whom their father deems acceptable.

Vickers “Vic” Cunningham acknowledged Friday that he set up a living trust with a clause rewarding his children if they marry a white person. Cunningham denied harboring racial bigotry but did confirm that his trust includes a stipulation intended to discourage a child from marrying a person of another race or of the same sex. “I strongly support traditional family values,” Cunningham said. “If you marry a person of the opposite sex that’s Caucasian, that’s Christian, they will get a distribution.”

Cunningham is quick to insist that the various “milestone” clauses aren’t actual requirements, which, technically, is true. Some of those milestones, such as completing an advanced degree, or running for public office, seem like life events any reasonable parent might wish for their offspring, but the race, gender, and religious “reward” structure undeniably reveals Cunningham’s bias against those who aren’t white, Christian, or straight.

Additional allegations of longtime racism and homophobia from both family members and colleagues also surfaced this week.

The Dallas Morning News cited Amanda Tackett, a former political aide who worked on Cunningham’s 2006 campaign for district attorney, who said he repeatedly made racist remarks. His own mother, Mina Cunningham, is quoted in the article as having admitted that her son had a penchant for using the N-word “quite a bit.” More charges of racism were lodged by Cunningham’s brother Bill, who is gay and married to a black man. He said Vic Cunningham threatened him and his husband, referring to his husband repeatedly as “your boy.” “His views and his actions are disqualifying for anyone to hold public office in 2018,” Bill Cunningham told the Dallas Morning News. “It frightens me to death to think of people in power who could hurt people.” Vic Cunningham’s son, who is dating a Vietnamese woman, also spoke with the daily, and said his interracial relationship is helping to change his father’s biased thinking.

Though he (and other family members) are quick to deny any bias and bash those speaking against him, Cunningham’s remarkably unreassuring interview does little to refute the accusations. In particular, when asked if he’s ever used the N-word, his hesitation to answer raises a lot of flags.

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Cunningham’s unapologetic admission of using bigotry to control his children now brings his previous work as a criminal judge into question, in addition to his competency to hold public office in the future. ThinkProgress sums up the obvious concerns well:

According to the Dallas Morning News, the constituency Cunningham would represent if elected is comprised largely of African Americans and Hispanics. As a judge for about a decade, the daily wrote that he sent scores of black and Hispanic defendants to prison, although he insists he never showed racial bias in his courtroom decisions.

In light of the news, the Dallas Morning News has now withdrawn their endorsement of Cunningham for county commissioner.

This newspaper recommended Vickers Cunningham for the Precinct 2 seat on the Dallas County Commissioners Court because we felt the former state district judge's career left him best prepared for the job. However, recent developments have caused us to reconsider, and we are withdrawing our recommendation of Cunningham. That decision is based on several pieces of information that have come to light in the final days of this campaign, in which Cunningham is competing against lawyer and businessman J.J. Koch.

The announcement concludes with a sad summary of the available Republican options.

We did not recommend Koch in either the primary or runoff because he struck us as combative and dismissive when discussing sitting members of the court. Dallas County Commissioners Court Precinct 2 deserves better than the candidates in this runoff.

Yes, they do deserve better, and no matter who wins Tuesday’s runoff, here’s hoping that voters choose Democrat Wini Cannon in the November general election.



But when one looks at the current American president, it’s sometimes hard to believe any of us will ever get the “better” that we deserve.