Electoral Extremism: A Look at Five More Far-Right Candidates
Every election season brings out candidates from across the political and ideological spectrums. The current level of polarization, particularly on the right, has facilitated the emergence of extremist candidates. These candidates tend to promote antigovernment conspiracy theories and demonize minority groups – some even have ties to hate groups.
We recently profiled a dozen such candidates in the latest issue of SPLC’s Intelligence Report. Since that article went to press, additional candidates in the extremist mold have to come to light. Here are five that caught our attention.
Georgia
Jody Hice, running for U.S. Congress in Georgia’s 10th district as a Republican, clinched a spot in a July runoff in the race to replace former Rep. Paul Broun, a fellow Republican who said in 2012 that evolution, the Big Bang, and embryology are “lies from the pit of hell” and claimed that President Obama was developing a secret police force to install a dictatorship. Broun run for the U.S. Senate but lost in the primary. Hice, a pastor and talk radio host, may very well be to the right of Broun.
In his 2012 book, It’s Now or Never: A Call to Reclaim America, he promoted a number of anti-LGBT falsehoods, including claims that homosexuality causes shorter lifespans and depression, and that LGBT people cannot raise healthy children. He also compared pro-choice advocates to Nazis and argued that states can nullify federal power and take up arms against the federal government if they consider a federal law “unjust.” Hice also says that Muslims must be viewed with suspicion, and Islam should not be protected under the First Amendment.
On his campaign website, Hice claims that he is a leader in “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” an annual event sponsored by the hard-right Alliance Defending Freedom in which religious clergy violate IRS regulations that prohibit tax-exempt organizations (like churches) from endorsing or opposing political candidates.
Hice’s first unsuccessful run for Congress was in 2010, when he made it to the primary in a neighboring district but was defeated by Rep. Bob Woodall. During that campaign, Hice had a billboard erected that featured President Obama’s name with a Soviet-era symbol.
Idaho
Idaho has quite a crop of extreme candidates this year, some of whom came to light during the recent Republican gubernatorial primary debate in which incumbent Gov. Butch Otter faced three challengers from the right. Video of the debate went viral thanks to a bizarre, show-stealing performance by Harley Brown, who said he was told by a prophet that he would one day be “commander-in-chief” (you can find that claim on his website). He says he’s running for governor “for practice.”
Brown promises that as governor, he will put an end to all abortion and that he “would delight in zealously advocating the God given Tenth Amendment Guarantee of states rights on behalf of all Idahoans and be overjoyed to mix it up anytime, anywhere with the feds whenever their minions of unconstitutional villainy dare to mess with the sovereign State of Idaho.” His page of “Harleyisms” includes such presumed witticisms as:
- “the REAL reason Jewish men get circumcised – Because Jewish women won’t touch anything that is at least 20% off”
- “How can you tell when an Arab reaches the age of maturity? He takes the diaper off his ass and plops it right on his head”
- “Riding a Jap bike is like f-cking a f-----,” with the punchline “I guess it feels OK until somebody sees you doing it & you sure as hell don’t tell your buddies about it the next day”
A fifth candidate running in the Republican gubernatorial primary wasn’t at the debate. Born Marvin Richardson, he changed his middle name to “Pro-Life” in 2004 and ran unsuccessfully for the Idaho state legislature. In 2006, he ran unsuccessfully for governor and shortened his entire name to just “Pro-Life.” He also ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2008, governor in 2010 and Congress in 2012. Currently, he claims he’s an organic farmer who’s just “trying to persuade people to give up their selfishness and live like Jesus.”
Pro-Life is currently a member of the far-right Independent American Party (IAP). He was a member and officer of the virulently anti-LGBT, theocratic and antigovernment-leaning Constitution Party in 2006, but he left, he says, over the party’s alleged refusal to discipline a state party chapter for its “denigration of their Sanctity of Life plank.” The theocratic Constitution Party seeks to “restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations” and limit the federal government.
The IAP originated in 1993 as the Utah Independent American Party, inspired by a speech by former Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Ezra Taft Benson, who was an admirer of the conspiracist, far-right John Birch Society. Benson believed that the civil rights movement was a communist plot and once encouraged Mormons to read a tract about the New World Order, a conspiracy theory in which a one-world government will come to power and oppress the population.
Pro-Life promises, if elected, to reduce funding for education, health, welfare, and recreational programs until they are eliminated. He believes this will create a prosperous state because it’ll have the least government. He also wants to switch the state over to gold and silver coins for currency and supports what he calls a “trigger law.” In the event that the federal government suspends the Constitution or Bill of Rights, state residents will be able to challenge such actions. It stands to reason, thus, that he also supports the idea of nullification – the falsehood that states can nullify federal law.
Pro-Life’s wife is running for state senate and, according to his website, 17,000 signatures are needed to get the Independent American Party on the ballot. However, according to his site, they can still be on the general election ballot if they get the required number of signatures for each office. Pro-Life needs 1000, and his wife needs 50. It’s unclear whether they will actually make the ballot.
Nevada
Meanwhile, in Nevada, marriage and family therapist David Lory VanDerBeek is running for governor on the Independent American Party of Nevada (IAPN) ticket (not to be confused with the previously mentioned national Independent American Party). The IAPN, which is affiliated with the Constitution Party, was in the news recently when antigovernment Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy joined. IAPN’s platform is a much shorter and modified version of the Constitution Party’s but does not include an anti-abortion plank.
VanDerBeek is a conspiracy theorist who posted a video in 2013 in which he listed 25 alleged crimes for which President Obama should be impeached. His mission, he says in the video, is to “emasculate” Obama’s presidency. VanDerBeek believes that terrorist attacks against the U.S. were actually carried out by government agents in order to strip Americans of their rights. He is a 9/11 truther, a birther and a Sandy Hook truther who thinks Obama ordered the massacre to implement psychological evaluations for gun owners. He also, somewhat surprisingly, supports marijuana legalization and “raw milk” (unpasteurized milk that supporters argue is healthier than pasteurized milk, despite the increased risk of illness). His 45-point issues statement can be found on his website.
West Virginia
And finally, Harry Bertram is running (again) on the white nationalist American Freedom Party (AFP) platform, this time for state senate in West Virginia. The AFP tries to downplay its views and appeal to broader libertarian sentiments, but prominent white nationalists lead it, including corporate lawyer William “Bill” Johnson, anti-Semitic retired professor Kevin MacDonald and David Duke’s former right-hand man, Jamie Kelso. The AFP’s mission statement used to say it represented “White Americans.” They’ve toned that down to the more mundane (but no less telling) “European-Americans and all Americans who support that mission.” Despite Bertram’s announcement of his candidacy, his official website remains devoid of any information regarding his latest run for office.
