Republican primary challengers embrace election lies, COVID-19 conspiracies, and more
By JEFF PILLETS NJ Spotlight
John Barker, a U.S. Army veteran running for the Republican nomination in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District, wants you to believe what would be shocking news: Vladimir Putin’s bombing targets in Ukraine are really money-laundering sites used by Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden.
Barker also endorses the idea that global warming is a fraud and that the Super Bowl’s rap-heavy half-time show is proof of America’s decline.
Rhetoric like this, usually the province of fringe candidates, is all over New Jersey this spring as dozens of hopeful Republican candidates appeal to a GOP base that’s on a roll and now looking to win in New Jersey.
New Jersey Spotlight News surveyed social media posts and campaign releases of some three dozen Republicans in all 12 of the state’s congressional districts.
The review shows that, on the surface, the GOP candidates portray themselves as traditional conservatives with big plans to lower taxes, limit government and expand what they view as personal freedom. Photos of Ronald Reagan and odes to the Second Amendment stream across their websites.
MAGA again
But this year, that traditional message is being drowned out by conservative clamor around social and identity issues. Many Republican campaigns are all about “saving America” from what they call evils like mask mandates, mail-in ballots, trans athletes and the demands of Black Lives Matter.
If candidates’ social media are a gauge, the Republican wave has arrived in New Jersey with a strong undercurrent of “Make America Great Again” zealotry, conspiracy chatter, misinformation, and race-based dog-whistling.
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