Hateful Posts Prompt School Board Candidate’s Withdrawal In Mercer Co.

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — A Board of Education candidate from Mercer County, dropped out of the race after antisemitic and homophobic comments he made on social media surfaced last week.

Nicholas J. Ferrara made various alarming posts on the social media platform Gab. He called for the “execution of the Marxist/communist jews,” who he said were "fake jew luciferean synagogue of Satan f*****s.”

His posts were first tweeted by Politico reporter Matt Friedman.

Ferrara previously ran in the GOP primary for New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District. He lost to Bob Healey and garnered 2,817 votes.

Mercer County Clerk, Paula Sollami-Covello told Patch that although Ferrara has contacted her office to enquire about the process to withdraw from the school board race, “we have not yet received official paperwork from him to officially withdraw.”

Ferrara’s former running mates, Monica Quaste and Stacy Byrne said they were “saddened and sickened by his hateful views” and hope he gets the help he needs.

"Stacy and I are parents not politicians and we learned a valuable lesson from this travesty. We are definitely at fault for not having a vetting process," Quaste told Patch. "We were informed that running on a slate was the best strategy and we agreed to be on his slate because of his political experience when we should have explored his political views. For this we are extremely sorry."

The duo said they entered the race for the "right reasons" and will be campaigning to help residents know their views and values.

"We are so sorry for allowing him to manipulate us and hope we can put this behind us and continue our mission to create safe and transparent schools," Quaste said.

Ferrara was among 11 candidates seeking three seats on the Hamilton Township School Board in the upcoming Nov. 8 election.

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