As the GOP runoff election for Alabama’s open fifth congressional seat nears, the issue of Critical Race Theory (CRT) has emerged as a hot issue in the race between Madison County Commission chairman Dale Strong and former U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Casey Wardynski.

Wardynski, who served the Trump administration as assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, has consistently made his public opposition to CRT a central tenet of his congressional bid.

In a television advertisement his campaign released in late April, Wardynski asserted that he “ended Critical Race Theory in the Army.”

That claim is being called into question by the Strong campaign, which pointed to an October 2020 United States Military Academy Library webpage captured by the Internet Archive that lists a research guide description for a seminar titled, “Behavioral Science and Leadership: SS392.”

The webpage notes “Critical Race Theory: An Introduction,” authored by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, as a required textbook for the seminar.

Also listed as required textbooks are “A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory” and “Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Class: Dimensions of Inequality and Identity.”

In a statement, Strong campaign manager Colin Sudduth alleged Wardynski was “pushing Critical Race Theory” on service members while he held the position of assistant secretary.

“These documents show, in fact, that Casey Wardynski, despite his claims, was pushing Critical Race Theory on our soldiers while he was an assistant secretary of the Army in the Trump administration,” said Sudduth. “During Wardynski’s role as Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Critical Race Theory was required reading in the form of class SS392 with Richard Delgado’s Critical Race Theory: An Introduction.”

The Strong campaign pointed to controversial fliers that were distributed at Redstone Arsenal in the summer of 2020, which contained politically-charged language linking certain common phrases to white supremacy.

“Casey Wardynski served from 2019-2020 as Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs under Mark Esper,” added Sudduth. “He and his office devised and implemented ‘Operation Inclusion’ to push Diversity and Inclusion across the entire United States States Army. As part of Operation Inclusion, ‘listening sessions’ were held on several Army bases including Redstone Arsenal.”

He continued, “We have obtained fliers distributed as part of this program that equated ‘Make America Great Again,’ ‘Celebration of Columbus Day’ and ‘Denial of Racism’ as socially acceptable forms of White Supremacy. These documents clearly state that they were designed and distributed by Casey Wardynski’s office.”

Fliers distributed at Redstone Arsenal as part of Operation Inclusion are below:

“Casey Wardynski’s record on Critical Race Theory is clear. He brought it into Huntsville City Schools, at the Pentagon he continued to push it on our soldiers, and then as a candidate for Congress he lied about his record,” concluded Sudduth.

In a response to the assertions, the Wardynski campaign denied that the candidate was involved in promoting CRT and provided a defense of the former Army assistant secretary.

“No surprise here: Dale Strong is lying again,” said the Wardynski campaign. “While we are grateful that this woke career politician is confirming Casey’s assertion that CRT was at West Point, the fact that Weak Dale Strong is attacking Casey Wardynski and President Trump by implying that they’re ineffective or liars shows that he’s either ill-informed or a never-Trumper, neither of which we can afford in Congress. This is an odd, Mitt Romney strategy that is a slap in the face to President Trump and his effectiveness in implementing an America First agenda.”

The campaign made mention of Wardynski recently picking up the endorsement of Joshua Whitehouse, who formerly served as the White House liaison to the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration.

“At West Point, Casey Wardynski DID replace the Dean (during a trip logged 8/11-12) because she was implementing CRT,” continued the Wardynski campaign. “This was recently confirmed by President Trump’s liaison to the DoD, Joshua Whitehouse in an interview covered by Yellowhammer News. President Trump did sign an executive order banning CRT in the military. It certainly sounds like Dale Strong is calling Trump a liar all over one rogue professor. Strong’s citations on his claims? Before Casey was in the administration, before Casey removed the curriculum at the military academy, and after President Trump’s executive order. We’ve all known that Dale is a RINO, but this is a new low!”

Regarding the Operation Inclusion documents that were distributed at Redstone Arsenal during Wardynski’s tenure, the campaign advised that he took action to “reprimand” the party that was responsible for the material.

“On the Redstone CRT fiasco: The FACT is that a random staffer put CRT language into a document and was immediately disciplined by Casey Wardynski’s office,” added the campaign. “Casey flew down to Redstone on July 11, picked the guy up, and brought him back to the Pentagon where he was reprimanded for his insubordination. We have the calendar of when the flights occurred. Casey Wardynski also issued orders to the entirety of the Army to stop the woke nonsense.”

The Wardynski campaign concluded, “It’s bizarre of career politician and BLM ally Dale Strong to turn on the Trump administration in the 11th hour of this runoff, but unfortunately it’s not surprising. There’s only one person in this race who has never caved to the will of the radical left, and it’s Casey Wardynski. Who are you going to trust: a guy like Dale Strong that moves monuments at midnight after the left tells him they have a checkbook in hand? Or Congressman Jim Jordan, General Michael Flynn, and President Trump’s liaison to the Pentagon who have all backed Trump-trusted Casey Wardynski? Pelosi and Biden would love to have Dale Strong in Congress.”

As part of its response, the Wardynski campaign provided a policy memo outlining the implementation of Trump’s September 2020 executive order to remove CRT from the military.

Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL