It might be 2018 but there are still a lot of racists around the country and unfortunately, there are more white supremacists running for office than you might realize.
— Charlottesville police arrest fourth person in connection with assault of DeAndre Harris —
It’s easy to convince yourself that these views are simply nothing more than fringe ideas and to some extent that is true, but there are hundreds of thousands of people, probably even millions who agree with all the likes of David Duke stand for. This year, many of them feel more emboldened than ever to get out there and try to change the laws of the country to reflect their own ideals.
Duke might have given up running for office, for the time being at least, but he feels good about the number of congressional candidates who seem sympathetic to his white supremacist views.
— Condoleezza Rice on the #MeToo movement: ‘Let’s not turn women into snowflakes’ —
“I think it’s about time,” Duke said. “I think there’s a tremendous amount of frustration in the white community and that we’re at a tipping point.”
It’s not just the new candidates we need to be worried about either. More Republican candidates than ever who are seeking re-election have been using white supremacist slogans, had white supremacists at their government events and granted interviews to racist publications.
Where once we could rely on the fact that these types of people would not ascend to the highest offices in the land, with the installation of President Trump, we now know anything is possible. After all, look at who he has brought with him to the White House. White nationalists such as Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka and Stephen Miller are all clear-cut racists who he gave a platform.
White supremacists running for office in 2018
— Melania Trump only follows five people on Twitter, and one of them is Barack Obama —
Arthur Jones
Jones is a long-time neo-Nazi and is looking to be the Republican nominee for a seat in Congress that would represent parts of Chicago. He is running unopposed in the primary but would be hard-pressed to win in the general election.
Paul Nehlen
He has a history of being on fascist white power podcasts and is looking to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin. He is also well known for posting racist and anti-Semitic comments on social media.
In 2018, he has shown that he too is emboldened and has become even louder about his bigotry. One of his comments was, “Jesus is the Messiah. He is one and whole with the Holy Ghost. Jews (and others) who do not acknowledge this fact will burn in hell.”
Sean Donahue
Sean Donahue is one of the white supremacists running for office and wants to unseat Rep. Lou Barletta. Last month the Dauphin County Council of Republican Women asked him to speak at a forum for primary candidates. None of the other candidates would go if he was there and the event was canceled.
In the past, he has claimed that Black Lives Matter and Antifa are in the process of planning an armed insurgency. He was also convicted of making terroristic threats against a local district attorney last year.
John Abarr
You might remember this guy from headlines in 2014 discussing how he wanted to recruit black and LGBTQ people for the KKK. He is now running for the Montana state House of Representatives and is actually looking to do it as a Democrat, not as a Republican as he has in the past.
His campaign website has an apology posted to the “citizens of Montana for promoting bigotry and hate against minorities.” Don’t start thinking he’s changed though because elsewhere on the site it says one of his key platforms is “pride and dignity for whites.”