Kasey Reynolds, a candidate for Chico city council, was woken up in the dead of night, around 2 a.m. Saturday, by a friend with terrible news. Along with her storefront, over a dozen of her campaign posters, all around town, had been vandalized.

Reynolds was able to be reached for a statement later that morning, as she was starting her shift at her downtown parlor, Shubert’s Ice Cream & Candy, which bore the brunt of the vandalism.

“It’s very, very sad,” Reynolds said, “and it’s not what you want to see when come in to work for the day.”

“There’s no excuse,” She said, “we all have different views. You show it at the ballot-box. This is not civil, and it’s not what Chico is about.”

Many of Reynolds campaign posters stand alongside other conservative leaning candidates, yet only hers were vandalized.

“I think it has something to do with me being a woman,” she said, “like I’m easier to intimidate, but it just makes me grind my heels down. I’m not backing down.”

While Reynolds has been cleaning up the damaged signs, she’s also started her own hashtag #StompOutHate, where people can come by and help “stomp out” the hateful messages painted in front of her store.

Josh Cozine and Christian Solis can be reached at [email protected] or @joshcozine and @c_alexander20 on Twitter.