JADE CAMPOS | Staff Writer
An activist and two members of Lancaster City Council are calling on Democratic mayoral hopeful Janet Diaz to resign or be removed from her elected post on council over a social media post they described as racist and Islamophobic. A third council member said Diaz should abandon her mayoral campaign.
The post, published on Diaz’s personal Facebook page on April 2 and deleted the same day, stated there are other Democrats besides council member Ahmed Ahmed running in the May 20 primary. Those candidates, the post said, were “born/raised in Lancaster.”
Diaz, reached for comment, denied posting the comment, claimed her account had been hacked and apologized. “I am sorry this happened though Ahmed is a very good person too. Technology is a very powerful weapon that can hurt people,” Diaz wrote in a text.
Ahmed, who is Muslim, came to the United States as a refugee from the African nation of Chad when he was 3.
A screenshot of a post made to Janet Diaz's Facebook account on April 2 that was deleted that same day.
Jessica Lopez, a city resident active in the criminal justice reform movement, criticized Diaz at a council meeting Tuesday.
“At this point, why are we allowing her to finish out her little term here? It’s distasteful to the community, it should be disrespectful to each and every one of you at this point, and what gets done?” she asked.
Diaz was absent from the meeting.
It is not clear which of the other candidates the post on Diaz’s Facebook page was referring to. Those who were born or raised in Lancaster city, or elsewhere in the county, are Vincent Derek Smith, Willie Shell Sr., Amos Stoltzfus and Marshall Miller. Smith and Shell are Black. Stoltzfus and Miller are white.
Incumbent Lochard Calixte immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti, while Nancy I. Millán is from Puerto Rico.
Diaz, a seven-year council member, is running for mayor in the May 20 Democratic primary. She divided her childhood years between Lancaster and family in Puerto Rico. Ahmed is running for reelection to City Council against seven other Democrats; four Democrats will advance to the general election ballot this fall.
Ahmed called on Diaz to resign and end her mayoral campaign.
“This really has no place in Lancaster, and this has no place in government,” Ahmed told LNP | LancasterOnline. “It’s disqualifying for her to continue as a councilor, let alone be mayor. There’s citizens asking for accountability. It’s just very concerning that this person is making decisions on behalf of the city and engaging in xenophobic and Islamophobic and racist bigotry.”
Responding to Lopez’s question, Council President Amanda Bakay called the Facebook post “racist and disgusting.” But she said state law makes it difficult for municipal officials to be removed from office.
Bakay and Council Vice President Jaime Arroyo, who is running against Diaz in the mayoral primary, told a reporter they both think Diaz should resign.
Diaz’s denial
A screenshot of the post was sent to an LNP | LancasterOnline reporter on April 2. In trying to verify its authenticity, the reporter sent a copy of it to Diaz that same day. Diaz did not respond. A reporter asked about the post again on April 4, and again got no reply.
During that time, Diaz continued to text the reporter to arrange an interview about her mayoral campaign.
Following Lopez’s comments at council, the reporter questioned Diaz about the post a third time on Wednesday. Diaz said she hadn’t seen it, and said other people post regularly to her Facebook account.
“I don’t run (the page), so I’d have to go back and check,” Diaz said.
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After a reporter shared a screenshot of the post again, Diaz denied ever seeing it. She claimed her account had been hacked, and shared a screenshot of the Facebook page listing email addresses with privileges to her account. She said one of the addresses was not hers, and she didn’t know how the post in question was deleted.
When asked whether she was concerned that other people had access to her personal account, Diaz said she was. But she said she gave only one other person access to her account – a teenage family member. She said she would remove the teen’s access, report the alleged hacking to Facebook and change her account password.
Twenty minutes after sending the text, Diaz apologized to Ahmed in an email sent to every other council member except Arroyo. LNP | LancasterOnline was copied by Diaz on the email.
“I deeply regret any distress or offense this may have caused you. I would never intentionally make remarks about anyone’s personal life, and I’m taking steps to secure my account to prevent this from happening again,” Diaz said in the email.
Diaz did not answer questions about whether she would resign or terminate her mayoral campaign.
Ahmed said of her apology, "This post was over a week ago and the apology is insincere and untimely."
Previous incidents
This would not be the first time Diaz used Facebook to single out Ahmed.
In October 2023, Diaz posted about a city politician who she said cut in front of her in line at a city establishment.
A screenshot of a post on Ahmed Ahmed Facebook's account, responding to a post by Janet Diaz in 2023.
“The audacity of this ‘person’ to just butt in front of me thinking that was okay?! Was it because I was a female?! ...a minority?! … both?!” Diaz wrote. “What ever the hell this uncouth, uncivilized and ill-mannered lout was thinking speaks to the accepted, gross mannerisms of our present society!”
That the comment was about Ahmed became clear after he responded to Diaz on his own Facebook page, calling her post a “dishonest and concerning portrayal of my character.” He said Diaz’s claims showed “a concerning history of false attacks with racist and xenophobic undertones.”
At the time, Ahmed was running to continue his first term on council after being appointed a year before to fill a seat made vacant by Izzy Smith-Wade-El’s election to the state House.
Diaz has also previously claimed her Facebook was hacked, most recently in November.
Athena Williams, a former Diaz ally, posted to Diaz’s mayoral campaign page about Diaz criticizing the hiring of a new police officer. Diaz, Williams wrote, thought the officer was not qualified and suggested the mayor’s hiring practices were not thorough.
Williams, who told a reporter she helped Diaz with her mayoral Facebook page, questioned why Diaz did not use her position as chair of the city’s public safety commission to address concerns about the new cop instead of asking others to “spread rumors.”
The post was quickly deleted. Diaz later told followers that someone she considered to be a “trustworthy friend” posted to her account. She said she trusted hiring decisions made by the mayor and police chief.
“This individual has misrepresented me in an attempt to tarnish my reputation and the work I do for our community,” Diaz said in the post.
Diaz has long been an isolated figure on City Council, where she is often the lone dissenting opinion on council decisions. And while she enjoys support from the state Democratic committee, the city party has never endorsed her campaigns for council or other offices.
She’s also a vigorous supporter of the city’s largely Latino southeast section, which currently does not have a resident serving on the at-large council. When Ahmed was appointed to the council in late 2022 to fill the vacancy left after Izzy Smith-Wade-El was elected to the state House, Diaz expressed her disappointment on the appointment, saying a resident of the southeast should have been seated.
Reporters Todd Lassa and Jaxon White contributed reporting.
NATHAN WILLISON | Staff Writer
