Newest member of Sacramento’s GOP leadership is member of far-right Proud Boys group
A prominent member of the Proud Boys, who has participated in nationwide protests and marches, has been elected to the Sacramento County Republican Party’s Central Committee, but says his activities should not conflict with his new post.
Jeffrey Erik Perrine, who has been a member of the Sacramento Proud Boys but says he has since left that entity, is waiting to be sworn into his new position, to which he was elected in March.
Perrine, 37, of Citrus Heights has been a focus of online posts by antifa and other groups that refer to him as “a far-right extremist” who is “openly anti-immigrant, racist and transphobic.”
Perrine disputes such claims, and denies that he once headed Sacramento’s chapter of the Proud Boys, which one hate group expert describes as “a neo-fascist, violent extremist organization.”
“I’ve been a member, but I’m not a head or an officer of any kind in any organization,” Perrine said in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. “Yeah, I’m still with the Proud Boys. I’m just a member. I’m a part of a fraternity.”
Perrine, who was scheduled to be sworn into his central committee post last week with other officials at a Zoom meeting, did not appear for the event but said he planned to be sworn in later.
He added that many of the incidents he has been accused of are taken out of context and are from 2018. He also disputed claims that he is racist.
“They can call me a Nazi all they want, and I know I have plenty of friends of all races that don’t always agree with me but they still love me,” Perrine said, adding, “The Proud Boys that I affiliate with are all working men, all married men, they all have good jobs, they all believe in God.”
Sacramento County GOP Chair Betsy Mahan said Friday that she did not know anything about Perrine’s affiliation with the group.
“He is allowed to run for office just like every other registered Republican in the county, and our bylaws state that anyone can do that,” Mahan said. “We don’t check people’s affiliations when they run and we have no control over who can run.”
The position is unpaid and helps support GOP candidates and register voters.
The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Proud Boys organization as a hate group and says “rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists.”
The group gained notoriety during the presidential debates when then-President Donald Trump was asked about them and said he would urge them to “stand back and stand by.”
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said he was familiar with Perrine’s activities and noted that he has been banned from posting on Twitter and has taken part in marches nationwide.
“Mr. Perrine is allegedly a bigoted extremist who has been a bit of a fixture at various militant rallies, not only here in California, but nationally, where he has allegedly urged ‘smashing heads’ into the ground of undocumented people or participated in the harassment of transgendered people,” Levin said.
He added that Perrine’s election is an example of right-wing activists who in recent months have sought to increase their political influence.
“This is something we’ve been talking about within the extremist monitoring world, the mainstreaming of extremism, and this is people’s Exhibit A,” he said.
One video posted online shows Perrine at an event in Portland, Oregon, in the summer of 2018 speaking through a megaphone suggesting that “all the illegals trying to jump over our border, we should be smashing their heads into the concrete.”
Perrine acknowledges he has participated in many such events nationally, including the Portland march, in which he was photographed June 30, 2018, being detained.
“When I say in 2018 ‘smashing an illegal immigrant’s head,’ what is racist about that?” he asked.
And he contends the suspension from Twitter of his @PatriotPrudent account stems from the fact that Trump confidante Roger Stone was seen on video directing people to it.
Perrine organized a “Turn California Red” rally at the state Capitol in 2018 to promote conservative causes, and he said he marched at the state Capitol on Jan. 6, 2020, at a rally where hundreds of Trump supporters turned out.
“On Jan. 6 I did lead the march around with my megaphone and was trying to be a motivator, but I wasn’t screaming for violence in the streets,” he said. “I was yelling, ‘who’s streets, our streets,’ and that is our right.”
But he said much of his street activism is behind him.
“I’m going to march in the streets, but I’m not going to throw the first blow,” he said, adding that he is not going to do anything to violate the oath of his new GOP position.
“I do know that I have constituents to consider,” he said.
This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Newest member of Sacramento’s GOP leadership is member of far-right Proud Boys group."