Photo shows U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler wearing blackface at college Halloween party in 2006

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler stated he was sorry Thursday after the New York Occasions obtained pictures of him carrying blackface about 20 years in the past at a school Halloween costume celebration the place he dressed as Michael Jackson.

The pictures emerged as Lawler, a first-term Republican, is locked in a aggressive reelection combat for his congressional seat in New York’s Hudson Valley.

In an announcement supplied to The Related Press, Lawler described himself as a lifelong Jackson superfan who was trying to pay homage to the pop star.

“When trying to mimic Michael’s legendary dance strikes at a school Halloween celebration eighteen years in the past, the ugly follow of black face was the furthest factor from my thoughts. Let me be clear, this isn’t that,” he stated, including that the costume was supposed as “a real homage to considered one of my childhood idols.”

“I’m a pupil of historical past and for anybody who takes offense to the photograph, I’m sorry,” Lawler stated. “All you are able to do is dwell and study, and I recognize everybody’s grace alongside the way in which.”

The Occasions reported that the photograph was taken in 2006 when Lawler was 20. In a picture posted by the newspaper, Lawler may be seen carrying a purple jacket and posing with an outstretched arm in considered one of Jackson’s signature dance strikes. He used bronzer to darken his face.

The congressman has been a well-documented Jackson devotee.

Final yr, The Day by day Beast reported on Lawler’s Jackson obsession. A biography of the pop icon, “Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Insanity, The Complete Story” advised of how Lawler, at age 18, flew from New York to California to attend Jackson’s legal trial after the musician was charged with molesting a toddler. Within the biographer’s account, Lawler was “so disgusted” with a number of the testimony “that he couldn’t assist however mutter one thing derogatory below his breath” and was thrown out of the courtroom.

In his assertion Thursday, Lawler stated “considered one of my best recollections” was attending a Jackson live performance at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York.

Lawler is in a troublesome race in opposition to Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, who’s Black. Lawler gained workplace in 2022 and has since grow to be a mainstay on cable information reveals.

Blackface minstrelsy took maintain in New York Metropolis within the 1830s and have become common amongst post-Civil Struggle whites, although it was considered offensive to Black folks from the start of its use.

A number of politicians and celebrities have been criticized for carrying blackface.