Minnesota councilwoman refuses to step down after racist phone call to biracial candidate: report

A Minnesota city councilwoman refuses to resign after making a racist phone call to a biracial candidate, according to a report.

The Columbia Heights city council for the second time passed a resolution calling for council member KT Jacobs to resign after she allegedly called candidate Justice Spriggs last year during his campaign and challenged his credentials. She also asked about the racial identity of his family members, reported the Star Tribune.

"I feel when you are elected to be an official in your city, that your name and your word needs to be paramount to everything that we hope of it to be, and I don't have faith in that anymore," said Mayor Amáda Márquez Simula before the vote.

Jacobs allegedly used a fake name during the July 24, 2022, call, which showed up on Spriggs' caller ID as Jacobs' number, to question whether the 26-year-old candidate was old enough to serve.

"The caller then asked Justice Spriggs if he was 'really biracial' and whether he had been raised in a white or Black household," said consultants from the outside firm Red Cedar Consulting, which was hired to investigate the incident.

"Justice Spriggs explained his heritage, including that his grandfather on his father’s side had been black. The caller commented that 'that’s not how that works.'"

She later issued an apology, saying she was "deeply sorry that the incident took place," but claimed a family member had made the call from her phone without permission. Investigators determined that was false, according to the report.

"Based on a full consideration of the evidence in the record, it is more likely than not that KT Jacobs’ assertions regarding the July 24 phone call have been untruthful," investigators found.

Spriggs was elected to city council and now sits on the dais immediately next to Jacobs, who stormed out of the meeting after the vote saying that a policy was not being followed.