Electoral Extremism: A Look at Five More Far-Right Candidates
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 HiceJody 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.
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