MANCHESTER, NH – A Lakes Region man who was investigated by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office in 2022 for racist attacks on a state representative, has received notice from the South Portland, Maine, police department after he sent a racist email to a school official, who has since resigned out of concerns for the safety of himself and his family.
Mohammed Albehadli, South Portland school district coordinator of diversity, equity and inclusion, resigned two weeks ago after reporting the Dec. 29 email, which is loaded with racial slurs and white nationalist hate speech, to police. Albehadli told local media he will likely leave Maine – where he’s lived for six years – because of the threats.
The email was sent by Ryan J. Murdough, 43, who has been making news in New Hampshire for racial rants and threats since 2010, when he was a Republican primary candidate for state representative and was condemned by the party as a “despicable racist.”
On Jan. 11, the South Portland Police Department sent Murdough a criminal trespass notice, ordering him to stay off South Portland school property and to not contact Albehadli. The notice said that “any course of conduct concerning racial slurs or language considered ‘hate speech’ is perceived as threatening” under Maine law.
The email referred to Albehadli, who is a native of Iraq, by racist slurs and said “Go back to the Middle East where you belong,” among other things.
Albehadli resigned earlier this month, with his last day on Jan. 19. “This event has been distressing to me and my family,” he told the Portland Press Herald.
South Portland School Superintendent Tim Matheney, in a message to school staff, said it was “the most vile email” he had seen in 35 years as an educator, according to the Press Herald.
The email included: “White parents don’t want their children going to school with black and brown kids who don’t belong in the United States. White people in Maine don’t appreciate what you are trying to do in Portland.” [Murdough apparently didn’t realize, when he sent it, that South Portland is a separate city from Portland].
Murdough responded in a post on the far-right social networking platform Gab that he has nothing against Albehadli. “The people I care about are the White students who are being used as pawns to satisfy the feelings and sensibilities of anti-Whites…not a single neighborhood, school or city improves by becoming ‘diverse.’”
Murdough was referring to the South Portland school district’s plan to reconfigure its five elementary schools to better balance the whiter and wealthier schools with those that are not. Murdough, on Gab, said he learned about the initiative through a Maine Wire article. The Maine Wire is a right-leaning digital news outlet.
In a Gab post that includes the police warning, he criticized Albehadli, the school district and police for their reaction, saying he didn’t threaten anyone. That’s countered by significant reporting in recent years about how hate speech and racism fuel violent behavior and terrorize their targets.
Murdough was investigated by the New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General in late 2022 as being in possible violation of the state criminal threatening statute after sending an intimidating email to Rep. Charlotte DiLorenzo, D-Newmarket, who is Black. After the investigation was launched, he sent racist emails to state Rep. Maria Perez, D-Milford, who is a native of El Salvador. The investigation apparently didn’t result in charges.
Most recently, in 2023, he attacked state representatives who support LGBTQ+ legislation, saying that they should not hold public office because of their views.
When he praised New Hampshire House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, in March for holding a session on the first day of Passover, Sherman issued a statement saying that he does not condone violence against others, hate speech, or any type of speech that marginalizes any particular group because of their beliefs, race, or personal life choices.
In September, Murdough, as the New England White Network, endorsed Kelly Ayotte in her run for governor after she made disparaging remarks about the Massachusetts cities near New Hampshire’s border. Ayotte, a former New Hampshire attorney general and U.S. senator was quick to reject the endorsement.
“I abhor racism, racists, and anyone who attempts to divide Granite Staters,” Ayotte told the Boston Globe. “The disgusting commentary made by this individual has no place in our politics or our state and should not be granted oxygen by my Democrat opponents or the liberal media trying to score political points against me.”
Franklin restaurant owner Miriam Kovacs last year sued the town for its lack of response after Murdough made online antisemitic threats against her and her business in 2022.
The Press Herald reported Jan. 24 that Murdough has also attacked others in the greater Portland area, including Portland City Councilor Victoria Pelletier after she spoke out against white supremacy last February. After Pelletier condemned a banner that was hung up in the city that said “It’s OK to be White,” she received what she described at the time as anonymous comments “about me and things that should happen to me because I spoke out against white supremacy…That I should be violently hurt. That I should be beaten. That I should be shot. That I should be killed.”
The Press Herald doesn’t clarify what comments were Murdough’s or what other Maine government representatives have received messages from him. An Anti-Defamation League photo of Murdough shows him wearing a T-shirt that says “It’s OK to be White” on it.
The ADL describes Murdough as “a New Hampshire-based white supremacist” who “has been involved with a range of now-defunct white supremacist groups including North East White Pride, National Socialist American Labor Party, New Hampshire Nationalists and the American Third Position Party.” Murdough lives in the Lakes Region, the most recent public information shows him as living in New Hampton.
It describes the New England White Network, which Murdough says he’s founder of, as “a small white supremacist group created in 2022…Claiming to be a symbol of white rebellion and freedom, NEWN focuses on those in the public spotlight that they deem ‘anti-White.’ They are best known for writing letters, emails or online posts directed at various Democratic politicians, Jewish people, minorities, the LGBTQ+ community and educators of diversity curricula among others.” NEWN’s only online presence is the social media platform Telegraph, where it has 14 followers.
In March 2022, Murdough announced in an antisemitic rant that denied the Holocaust on the social media platform Telegraph that he was running for state representative as a Republican, but did not follow though.
In 2019, a third-party social media outlet reported Murdough, who it said lived in New Hampton, had announced a run for the District 1 Belknap County House seat as a Republican, but did not follow through then, either.
Murdough ran for state representative in the 2010 Republic primary with four other candidates for the Grafton County District 8 seat. After he wrote a letter to the editor of the Concord Monitor during the campaign telling white people to take a stand, then-State Republican Party Chairman John H. Sununu “found the letter to be disgusting” and “immediately issued an order barring this imposter from using any party resource to promote his candidacy,” party spokesman Ryan Williams said, as reported in the Laconia Sun at the time.
Williams described Murdough as “a despicable racist.” He said, “His racist views are abhorrent and he is not welcome in the New Hampshire Republican Party.”
Williams said Murdough was barred from any assistance by the party during his campaign – for instance, voting lists and staff help with questions – and that the party was exploring further sanctions against him.
Though he was running in that year’s primary as a Republican, Murdough told the Sun he was chairman of American Third Position, “a political party that stands for the interests of white Americans.”
In the “About” section on his Gab account, Murdough uses the phrase “despicable racist,” attacks Jews, and describes himself as a “White Genocide survivor.”
Ryan J. Murdough should not be confused with Washington Police Chief Ryan H. Murdough, who was chief in Henniker at the time of the Laconia Sun article. Ryan H. Murdough said at the time that he is sometimes mistaken for the other Murdough.