She Shared 'Her Truth' — And Left Fairfield's Democratic Party

FAIRFIELD, CT — A former Democrat elected official in Fairfield has switched parties after a disagreement with party leadership over Facebook posts in which she supported President Donald Trump’s calls for further investigation of the 2020 election results and claimed Antifa was involved in the recent Capitol riot.

“My truth is not their truth,” Representative Town Meeting member Tameisha Powell-Dunmore said of Democratic Town Committee leadership. “They just stressed that they were offended, highly offended, by my posts.”

In various Facebook posts and comments, Powell-Dunmore appeared to support elected officials’ opposition to the certification of the presidential race results, and said “Gods plan for America includes a 2nd Term” and “Trump is on the winning side, standing firm!”

“I’m not standing for a man or party,” she said. “I’m standing as an American citizen requesting truth, requesting that there’s transparency from the top.”

Powell-Dunmore also used the hashtag #italydidit, which is associated with the theory — debunked by Reuters — that a worker for an Italian security firm interfered with the election to secure a win for President-Elect Joe Biden.

In addition, she shared a video that included claims that Antifa operatives led the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and specifically cited footage purported to show state troopers escorting a caravan of Antifa buses to the Capitol. AFP has determined the footage was taken in December in Minnesota.

“These are my views,” Powell-Dunmore said. “I just want truth and I want everyone to just know truth and that’s why I posted what I posted.”

Powell-Dunmore deleted several posts from Facebook, but screenshots were provided to Patch and verified by Powell-Dunmore. She said she removed the posts after she saw they were offending people and causing conflict.

“People were going back and forth at each other on the posts and that’s not what I stand for,” she said.

Powell-Dunmore said she left the Democratic Party after she was encouraged by its town leaders to resign and to allow her seat representing District 6 to be assigned by the party to someone else.

“The right thing for me to do was to complete my term,” she said.

Democratic Town Committee Chairman Steve Sheinberg disagreed with Powell-Dunmore’s account of what happened.

“We cannot stress enough that DTC leadership in no way, shape, or form pressured Tameisha to leave the party or resign as a DTC member,” he said in an email. “She informed us that she had made that decision after careful consideration of the situation.”

Party leaders did tell Powell-Dunmore her posts contradicted the committee’s mission to support Democratic candidates, he said.

“Tameisha refused to discuss her posts with us, claiming that they represented ‘her truth’ and telling us she was ‘not going to debate it,’ ” Sheinberg said.

While Powell-Dunmore has registered as a Republican and been accepted to the town meeting’s Republican Caucus, Fairfield Republican Town Committee Chairman Alex Plitsas said she is not a member of the committee and won’t be eligible to join until its elections in March 2022.

Plitsas said he and Sheinberg agree that conspiracy theories are dangerous.

“Neither one of us support them, and we certainly are not going to support elected officials who are espousing them,” he said. “The president-elect has been duly elected by the American people and people need to respect that.”

Powell-Dunmore joins fellow District 6 town meeting member Hannah Gale in her recent party change. Gale switched last month from a Democrat to a Republican.

“Both Tameisha and Hannah have demonstrated an independent streak in terms of how they vote,” Plitsas said. “They really didn’t vote cleanly with either party over the past session.”

Powell-Dunmore’s move to become a Republican leaves the town meeting in an even split, with 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans. Every seat on the body will be on the ballot in November’s local election.