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Meet the New Wave of Extremists Gearing Up for the 2016 Elections

A few well-known extremist political candidates are joined by new characters from the radical right in announcing candidacy for political offices in 2016.

While familiar racists, like Bob Whitaker, the man behind 鈥渢he mantra,鈥 a slogan that is oft repeated by white supremacists lamenting supposed racial double standards in the United States, are representing the long-established white nationalist American Freedom Party (AFP), a handful of new candidates have announced their intentions to run for office under the banner of the newly formed Traditionalist Workers Party (TWP).

TWP, formed in January of this year as the political wing of the Traditionalist Youth Network (TYN), an identitarian-inspired umbrella group that aims to indoctrinate high school and college students into white nationalism.

According to the TWP website, 鈥淭radWorker is less about the candidates and campaigns than it is about building relationships of loyalty and support at the neighborhood and community level.鈥 The site goes on to say, 鈥淥ur mission is defending faith, family, and folk against the politicians and oligarchs who are running America into the ground. We intend to achieve that goal by building a nationwide network of grassroots local leaders who will lead Americans toward a peaceful and prosperous future free from economic exploitation, federal tyranny, and anti-Christian degeneracy.鈥

Such language, disingenuously cloaked in claims of love for one鈥檚 鈥渙wn people鈥 as opposed to hatred for anyone, is typical from TWP鈥檚 virulently racist and anti-Semitic parent organization.

TWP has already announced two candidates: Tony Hovater and Tom Pierce, both running for small local offices (see below). 聽

AFP and TWP represent two distinctly different strategies for using the political system to advance racism. Whereas AFP, which was formed by a cadre of skinheads in southern California in 2009, has long run presidential candidates with no hope of success, works to exploit the election cycle as a way to raise money and generate publicity for their racist positions, TWP actually hopes to win by running for local offices in small communities.

鈥淢ost pro-white endeavors [in politics] run themselves out by running for too much at too聽high of a level,鈥 TWP founder Matthew Heimbach told Hatewatch. 鈥淥ur mission is to create a European-styled nationalist movement that really follows their [Europe鈥檚] example, where the party is really a subculture.鈥

Strategies like TWP鈥檚 have proven successful before, even when a candidate has well-publicized extremist connections. Michael Peroutka, a longtime League of the South (LOS) member who once served on the neo-Confederate hate group鈥檚 board, was elected to serve on the Anne Arundel County Council in Maryland last November.

Here is a list of the extremist candidates who have announced their intentions to run so far.


Tony Hovater

Tony Hovater

City Council

New Carlisle, Ohio

Traditionalist Worker鈥檚 Party

Hovater, who met Heimbach at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. in February of 2015, is the first political candidate for TWP. Hovater also attended other major white nationalist events in 2015, including the American Renaissance conference in Tennessee and a National Policy Institute gathering in Washington, D.C. While co-hosting the Traditionalist Youth Hour podcast hosted on Radio Stormer, the internet radio channel of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, Hovater stated that he has 鈥渁lways been a white nationalist鈥 and that TWP wants to 鈥渢ake over a town at a time鈥 with its local election strategy. In an article posted to the AFP website in early August, TYN鈥檚 COO claims that Hovater is not about 鈥渨hite power,鈥 but rather 鈥渨hite political power.鈥


Tom Pierce

Tom Pierce

County Commissioner

Knox County, Tennessee

Traditionalist Worker鈥檚 Party

Pierce, a five-year veteran of the U.S. Army, is an established activist and leader for the (CCC) in east Tennessee. He is a longtime associate of Heimbach, who he semi-regularly organizes events with, most recently a confederate battle flag rally in Knoxville, Tenn. On his campaign Facebook page, he identifies as a Christian Kinist. is a white supremacist take on Christianity that encourages living with one鈥檚 own kind. The Kinist Institute, an organization that promotes Kinism, has called for a law against racial intermarriage, an end to non-white immigration, expelling all 鈥渁liens鈥 (鈥渢o include all Jews and Arabs鈥), and restricting the right to vote to white landholding men over the age of 21. Pierce argues in his platform that states have the right to ignore Supreme Court decisions and that anyone who receives an abortion will be given the death penalty.


Bob Whitaker

Bob Whitaker

President of the United States

American Freedom Party

While he claims on his blog to have been the 鈥渕essage man鈥 in the Reagan administration who was responsible for crushing communism and bringing down the Berlin Wall, Bob Whitaker has a more timely reason for fame in white nationalist circles.

Whitaker is the author of 鈥The Mantra,鈥 a 221-word attack on multiculturalism that has grown wildly popular on the racist right. Sections have appeared on banners hanging from Interstate overpasses, on billboards and on signs at white nationalist gatherings and protests. Its most popular phrase, 鈥淎nti-racist is a code word for anti-white,鈥 has been reduced to dozens of similar phrases, including 鈥淒iversity = White Genocide鈥 and 鈥淒iversity is a Code Word for Anti-White.鈥 Surprisingly, the message has become a unifying touchstone associated with cries of 鈥渨hite genocide鈥 that have united the American white nationalist right in some regards.

Undoubtedly, fame surrounding the Mantra drove AFP鈥檚 initial decision to pick Whitaker聽as its candidate. AFP鈥檚 previous elections have been an abysmal failure and the party has sought to increase its voter turnout in 2016 by choosing a more recognizable candidate and conducting robocalls in states such as Idaho, Missouri and Alabama. When asked about his candidate, AFP chair William Johnson told Hatewatch, 鈥淢r. Whitaker is a much stronger candidate, much better well known in and outside of the movement.鈥


Tom Bowie

Tom Bowie

Vice President of the United States

American Freedom Party

Tom Bowie is the latest white nationalist running as the VP candidate for AFP. Bowie fills the void left by Bob Whitaker, who made the move to presidential candidate after an illness sidelined Ken Gividen, AFP鈥檚 original choice.

Little is known about Bowie, who certainly has a much lower profile than that of Whitaker or Gividen. Bowie is, however, a prolific poster on Stormfront, the Internet鈥檚 first hate site, founded 20 years ago by Alabama Klansman Don Black. To date, Bowie has posted over 3,100 times on it. Bowie is also an Internet radio host and can be heard weekly on the Pro-White American Radio Show hosted on TalkShoe.com, an online radio community.

Bowie鈥檚 postings and radio comments demonstrate his support of AFP鈥檚 Mantra platform. Back in 2010, in a comment on the website of the white nationalist radio show Political Cesspool, Bowie wrote, 鈥淚鈥檝e been using the Mantra for a while now with great success. I鈥檓 not sure just how many people I said it to over time but it gives our people the hope and knowledge that we can fix things.鈥 Five years later, Bowie鈥檚 Twitter account reads similarly. On October 14 of this year he wrote, 聽鈥淲e're running out of places for because is chasing down the last 补苍测飞丑别谤别.鈥


Taylor Rose

Taylor Rose

Montana State House of Representatives, District 3

Republican

Since his college days, Taylor Rose has been deeply active in white nationalism. Rose acted as vice-president of a now-defunct white nationalist campus group Youth For Western Civilization (YWC). Rose headed the Liberty University chapter of the group. YWC was known for inviting white nationalists to college campuses and holding racially offensive events, such as an anti-immigrant event at Washington State University in 2011 where the YWC chapter erected a mock border fence complete with signs reading, 鈥渘o crossing.鈥

Rose lived for a time in Europe, where he worked to build ties with a number of extremist political parties. In 2011, Rose met in Antwerp with members of the far-right Belgian political party Vlaams Belang at one of the party's congresses, where he delivered a speech on the 鈥渃onsequences of illegal immigration.鈥 He was photographed there with members of PRO NRW (NRW means North Rhineland-Westphalia, a German state) and PRO K枚ln (City of Cologne), both of which are classified as "right-wing extremist" by German authorities. Members of the far-right anti-immigration and anti-Islamic German Pro-Bewegung (Pro-Motion) movement were also in attendance. In 2011, Rose also attended and spoke at the anti-Muslim 鈥淢arch for Freedom鈥 in Cologne, Germany. Cities Against Islamization, a coalition of various far-right groups, some of whose members have been officially declared extremist by European governments sponsored the event.

Rose鈥檚 book, Return of the Right: How the Conservative Movement is Taking Back Western Civilization, was published in 2012 and was promoted by a number of white nationalist groups including the CCC. He is Facebook friends with a number of white nationalists including Peter Brimelow, founder of the nativist hate site VDARE, and Brad Griffin, active in both the CCC and LOS.

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