‘I do not feel safe in this position anymore’: Republican Kansas mayor resigns over threats following mask mandate

‘They were loud, and they were aggressive, and they frightened me and my family’

A Republican mayor in Kansas has resigned after receiving a barrage of threats for publicly supporting a mask mandate in her city.

Mayor Joyce Warshaw of Dodge City in western Kansas said she feared for the safety of herself and her family after receiving threats by phone and email following her vote to approve the mandate, The Washington Post reported. 

The threats reportedly escalated after she was quoted in an article by USA Today supporting the move, according to The Dodge City Globe.

As a result, Ms Warshaw announced in a letter to city officials that she was resigning her position on Tuesday, effective immediately.

“I do not feel safe in this position anymore,” she wrote in a resignation letter. “And am hopeful in removing myself this anger, accusations and abuse will not fall on anyone else and will calm down.”

The city commission voted four to one on 16 November to impose a mask mandate, ordering residents to wear masks indoors, with several exceptions.

Ford County, which is home to the city, and has about 33,600 residents, has recorded 4,914 cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic began, according to the state health department.  

Ms Warshaw explained NBC News on Tuesday that "threats, accusations and actions" toward her and her family from those in the community had forced her to step down.

“They were loud, and they were aggressive, and they frightened me and my family,” Ms Warshaw told The Post.

“There’s a strong part of me that wants to say they are only words. But people are angry right now, and I don’t know that for sure.”

Dodge City Police Chief Drew Francis told NBC News that the department is investigating the emails in order to determine its response to the incidents.

“I understand people are under a lot of pressure from various things that are happening around society like the pandemic, the politics, the economy, so on and so forth, but I also believe that during these times people are acting not as they normally would,” Ms Warshaw said.

The former mayor expressed that she had no regrets with any of my decisions during her time in power in her letter and said she “truly made every decision for the best interest of all of you and Dodge City.”

Additional reporting by the Associated Press