LEWISTON, Maine (AP)   A Maine House candidate used Twitter attack two students who survived a shooting at a Florida high school, calling one of them a “skinhead lesbian” and the other a “bald-faced liar.”

Republican Leslie Gibson, the only declared candidate for the 57th District, told the Sun Journal that it was “not appropriate to single out the Parkland students.”

But he said he stands firm in his defense of “our constitutional rights.” He said he served in the military and took an oath “to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Pat Fogg, a Democratic organizer in Greene, said she wished she knew someone who could jump into the race. She said, “That sort of stupidity really turns people off.”

The newspaper said Gibson has since made Twitter accounts private.