Dem front-runner in Ohio special election has close ties to socialist who said police 'represent the enemy'

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Nina Turner, the Democratic front-runner for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge's former Ohio congressional seat, has close ties to a radical activist who has said police "represent the enemy."  

Far-left activist Phillip Agnew worked alongside Turner as a campaign surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders' failed presidential campaign in 2019 and 2020.

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The two traveled together to several Sanders campaign stops between June and September 2019, including Miami, Charleston, S.C., and Greensboro, N.C., and attended a rally together for Sanders in March 2020.

Turner, who served as the national co-chair of Sanders' campaign, has also called Agnew her "friend" multiple times online, even referring to Agnew as a "thought leader" in a July 2020 tweet. Agnew has described Turner as a person who "animates people with the conviction of an impassioned leader with unmatched acuity."

Turner published a video of her and Agnew dancing at an NAACP dinner, had Agnew on her radio show, and hosted a "Justice Town Hall" with the activist in December 2020.

Agnew has posted anti-cop rhetoric on social media in the past, tweeting, "f---... the police" multiple times, and gave an interview with the Afrikan Black Coalition in January 2021, where he said he was "FTP [f--- the police] all day."

"I don't got no love for no police officer ever in my life," Agnew said. "I don't care. I don't love, I don't like none of them, right? And I never will. Okay, so just be clear."

"That's where I stand politically and personally. The police are put into — they are a system of enforcement, right? To reinforce the cultural norms and the status quo," he continued. "... No mincing of words. We don’t need police. We never have needed police and they represent the enemy, the ops every single time."

Agnew tweeted in 2018 that he stood by his previous comments on the police, including a tweet where he said, "I hope I never have a buddy that becomes a Police Officer. I've recognized that I have a deep hate for all of them."

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Agnew, a self-described socialist, co-founded the activist group Dream Defenders after the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012.

In 2014, Dream Defenders voiced support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — which has been dubbed a terror group by the U.S. government since 1997 — according to the Anti-Defamation League, a left-leaning anti-Semitism watchdog. 

Dream Defenders also supports the defund the police movement, writing on Facebook in February that they want to defund "the pigs, and free every Black person locked up behind these walls." They also signaled their support for convicted cop killer Assata Shakur, who is on the FBI's most-wanted list.

The group has also called for the abolition of law enforcement, saying defunding the police is the "path" to doing so.

Former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner is the Democratic front-runner for the open Buckeye State congressional seat.

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Turner took part in a Dream Defenders "Sunday School" event in April of last year alongside Agnew, even promoting it as one "to remember."

Neither Turner's campaign nor Agnew responded to Fox News' requests for comment.

Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.