Far-Right Candidates Will Appear on Ballots across the Country This Fall
A number of candidates who hold extreme views on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and government have either won their primaries or appear poised to do so. Here are some of the most notable examples.
In Colorado this week, state House candidate Gordon Klingenschmitt, who was while a U.S. Navy chaplain and later claimed he performed an on a lesbian soldier, advanced to the general election, the reported.
Klingenschmitt runs the Pray In Jesus Name Project, which is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBT hate group. He defeated Dave Williams in the Republican primary by about 300 votes 鈥 52.5 percent of the vote 鈥 to earn the right to face unopposed Democrat Lois Fornander in the GOP-leaning district on Nov. 4.
Colorado voters who backed Klingenschmitt were either unaware of or support his views that gay people are and that , according to Right Wing Watch.
Klingenschmitt spells out many of his controversial, anti-LGBT views on his radio show, where once said, 鈥淭he ultimate hate speech is to endorse homosexuality.鈥
As his political career took hold this week, he told the Colorado Springs newspaper: 鈥淚鈥檓 very humbled by the support of the voters. This was their campaign.鈥
鈥淭he voters are rising up with me to defend the First Amendment, religious freedom, smaller government, lower taxes and the right to life,鈥 Klingenschmitt told the newspaper. 鈥淎nd those are the values I will fight for in Denver.鈥
In neighboring Oklahoma, Steve Kern, an evangelical pastor whose legislator wife has made incendiary comments about minorities and gay people, has advanced to an Oklahoma state Senate runoff, the reported.
Kern鈥檚 wife, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern, is running unopposed for re-election. In 2008, she made national headlines when she said gay people pose a greater threat to the United States than terrorists. Two years ago, Sally Kern was reprimanded after denigrating blacks and women during a state House debate on an affirmative action bill.
Steve Kern has given every indication that he shares his wife鈥檚 views and agenda. He will face anesthesiologist Ervin Yen in an Aug. 26 run-off election to decide which of the two Republican candidates will face Democrat John Handy Edwards in November.
Yen, a Republican candidate for the Oklahoma State Senate District 40 seat, received the most votes 鈥 39 percent of those cast for six candidates. A native of Taiwan, Yen will now have about two months to campaign against Kern to represent a district that is home to Oklahoma City鈥檚 largest community of Asian Americans.
鈥淎s a general rule, I think in the past, the Asian population has not been very active politically,鈥 Yen told The AP, 鈥渂ut I think they are trying to become more active.鈥
There will be another run-off election, this one on July 22 in Georgia, where Jody Hice, a Baptist minister and radio talk show host with an anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim agenda, is seeking a spot in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In May, Hice finished first among seven GOP candidates in the Georgia鈥檚10th District. Now, Hice faces Republican runner-up Mike Collins, a businessman and son of former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins. The winner of the July 22 GOP runoff will face Democrat Ken Dious in the November general election.
鈥淭he [Republican] winner is all but guaranteed to win in November and replace U.S. Rep. Paul Broun,鈥 the reports.
In a 2012 book, Hice said Muslim鈥檚 don鈥檛 deserve First Amendment protection, the newspaper鈥檚 columnist wrote on Monday.
鈥淎lthough Islam has a religious component, it is much more than a simple religious ideology,鈥 Hice wrote in his book. 鈥淚t is a complete geo-political structure and, as such, does not deserve First Amendment protection.鈥
Bookman wrote: 鈥淗ice believes that the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating the United States, with the intent to impose Sharia law on all of us. He also believes that it鈥檚 fine for women to seek political office, at least if certain conditions are met. 鈥淚f the woman鈥檚 within the authority of her husband, I don鈥檛 see a problem,鈥 he told the Athens Banner-Herald in 2004.鈥
鈥淕iven all that,鈥 the newspaper columnist said, 鈥渋t will not surprise you to learn that Hice would eagerly vote to impeach President Barack Obama. He also believes that gay people are engaged in a plot to convert our young people to homosexuality, and that 鈥榟omosexuals have a right to be married; they just don鈥檛 have the right to marry each other.鈥欌
Hice apparently is feeling the heat generated by his comments.
鈥淭o clarify, the comments made in my book were only directed toward radical Islamists that plot to wage war on our country and harm our people,鈥 Hice said in a posted at his web site. 鈥淚f my opponent disagrees with me there, I am positive he'll find himself in a bind on election day.鈥
In another race of note, one-time Constitutional Party presidential candidate Michael Anthony Peroutka 鈥 a past board member of the racist League of the South 鈥 received the most votes in the Republican primary to represent District 5 on the Anne Arundel, Md., County Council.
Peroutka leads Maureen Carr-York by 36 votes, 2,253 to 2,217, according to election returns, the reports. The final winner will be announced pending the counting the absentee ballots.
Another political candidate with ties to the League of the South was turned down this week by voters in his attempt to win a seat as a Democrat on Maryland鈥檚 Anne Arundel County Council.
David Whitney, the League鈥檚 鈥渃haplain,鈥 was soundly defeated by Democrat Patrick Armstrong who got 64.7 percent of the vote in the county鈥檚 Democratic primary, election results show.
Peroutka and the League appear to be attempting to extend the reach of their neo-Confederate views in Maryland.
Peroutka contributed $4,000 to the political campaign of Carroll County Commissioner Richard Rothschild, a Republican who鈥檚 seeking re-election, the reports.
Rothschild said he was 鈥渟hocked and honored鈥 to receive the campaign contribution which he believes came because of his position on property and gun rights.
Rothschild, who writes a column for Peroutka鈥檚 Institute on the Constitution website, defended Peroutka鈥檚 involvement in the League of the South, the Maryland newspaper said.
鈥淢ichael Peroutka is a good and decent Christian conservative,鈥 Rothschild told the newspaper.