Anti-Muslim Pastor Wins Georgia GOP Congressional Primary

Facepalm

While Georgia Republican Senate nominee David Perdue is a fairly mainstream conservative Republican, the same cannot be said of Pastor Jody Hice, who won the Republican Primary Runoff Election in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District:

Jody Hice, a conservative pastor who believes First Amendment protections do not apply to Muslims and warned of a homosexual plot to sodomize children may soon be going to Congress.

Hice won the Republican primary in Georgia’s 10th District on Tuesday. Given the district’s hard conservative lean, Hice will likely win the general election in November.

Hice would replace Republican Congressman Paul Broun, who is currently one of the most socially conservative members of Congress. Broun’s greatest hits include denouncing evolution and the Big Bang as “lies straight from the pit of hell,” calling for Muslims to face additional scrutiny at airports, and alleging that President Obama had a plan to take over the country with armed civilian militias.

Establishment Republicans probably breathed a sigh of relief when Broun gave up his seat for an unsuccessful Senate run this year. Not only would they not have to deal with him in the Senate election, but they were free of him in the House too. But it looks like his replacement, who Broun endorsed in the primary, will carry on his legacy. 

In a 2012 book, “It’s Now or Never: A Call to Reclaim AmericaHice argued that Islam is “a complete geo-political structure, and as such, does not deserve First Amendment protection.”

According to Right Wing Watch, Hice compared homosexuality to alcoholism and opposed a ban on gay conversion therapy in a by warning on his radio show that ”we are enslaving and entrapping potentially hundreds of thousands of individuals in a lifestyle that they really are not – and it’s all for the sake of political correctness.”

In his book, he cited a 1987 essay by gay writer Michael Swfit declaring “We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies,” a quote Hice said “reveal[ed] the radical agenda that is currently threatening our nation.” He didn’t mention that the essay was a satire.

David Friedlander has more:

Calling Hice simply an Islamophobe would be unfair. He’s truly so much more.

On women, Hice commented that he has no problem if they seek elected office, as long as they do so with the permission of their husbands: ”If the woman’s within the authority of her husband, I don’t see a problem.”

On gays, Hice claimed in his 2012 book, It’s Now or Never: A Call to Reclaim Americathat he uncovered a gay manifesto. He claimed this blueprint for the homosexual domination of America revealed their plans to “sodomize your sons” by seducing them “in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms,” until “your sons shall become our minions and do our bidding. ”

The problem is that what Hice was citing was a satirical column by gay writer Michael Swift, who was clearly mocking the idea of a scary, gay agenda. Once again, Hice confirms my theory that people on the far right have zero sense of humor, except when it comes to making jokes about, you know, Muslims and gays.

Last year during a radio show, Hice claimed that gays have a tendency to lie and be violent. He also compared being gay to alcoholism, which it must be noted he did way before Rick Perry said the same thing two weeks ago. Could Hice be writing speeches for Perry, or did Perry pull a Rand Paul and plagiarize from Hice? We may never really know.

Given the fact that Hice would be replaceing Paul Broun, who has his own history of bizarre  statements on a wide ranging number of subjects, it isn’t entirely surprising that the Republican voters of the Tenth District would pick him as their nominee. As for the General Election, it seems fairly clear that Hice will probably win in November. The 10th District is considered safe Republican by Rothenberg and other political analysts, it has sent a Republican to Congress in every election since 1992, and that the redistricting after the 2010 Census seems to have made it even more heavily Republican. So, in essence the voters of the 10th District will be replacing one slightly loony Congressman with one that is probably loonier, although he’s likely to be right at home with the likes of Louie Gohmert. Notwithstanding all of that, though, it says something unfortunate when someone who spews rather obvious religious bigotry not only sails through the primary of major American political party unscathed, but is on the path to actually become a Member of Congress.

FILED UNDER: 2014 Election, Congress, US Politics, , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. CSK says:

    Well, if this district is Broun’s district, then Hice is a shoo-in, I suppose.

  2. NBH says:

    At least there’s someone running against this twit this year. Broun ran unopposed last election. Unfortunately, the odds of the idiot losing in this district are minuscule since he has an R by his name. But at least I won’t have to write in Satan this time.

  3. Moosebreath says:

    @NBH:

    “But at least I won’t have to write in Satan this time.”

    So you were tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.

  4. Matt Bernius says:

    Based on the sentiments of a number of the vocal conservatives here at OTB, I sadly have to note he’s appears to be inline with the comments-on-blogs wing of the party.

  5. stonetools says:

    Hey, independents, remember this:

    “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two major parties.”
    Pretend there’s no difference between “may not be as liberal or moderate as I like” or “doesn’t agree with me in everything” and “batsh!t insane.”
    And for good measure, vote for irrelevant third party guy and profess yourself not at fault when batsh!t insane guy gets in and starts enacting insane legislation and policy. Say, “Hey don’t blame me. I voted for irrelevant third party guy, because-PURITY!!!”

  6. CSK says:

    @stonetools:

    That’s actually the Tea Party line: “There’s no difference between Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, so vote for Alison Grimes.”

  7. @stonetools:

    You’re right! Come November, every independent in the GA-10 district should be sure to vote for Democrat…. oh that’s right, the Democratic Party didn’t even bother to run against him.

  8. gVOR08 says:

    This is all pretty funny, ’til someone pokes an eye out. How do you run a democracy with voters like these? However, I don’t blame the rubes in GA 10, I blame the Republican elites who are only too happy to stoke this craziness.

  9. CSK says:

    It’s worth noting that Broun, like Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, was on the House Science and Technology Committee. Presumably someone semi-rational will replace him. Or am I presuming too much?

  10. NBH says:

    @Moosebreath:

    “So you were tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. ”

    Not really. If I’m going to vote for evil, I prefer clever evil over it-takes-talent-to-be-this-incompetent evil. And if I wanted to make sure I wasn’t voting for the lesser evil, I would have written in Cthulhu!

  11. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    This is ridiculous. We all know that the only party allowed to have certified nuts in Congress are the Democrats. Cynthia McKinney, Hank “Guam might tip over” Johnson, Alan Grayson, Anthony Weiner, David “Tiger-Man” Wu, Patrick Kennedy, Sheila Jackson Lee…

  12. skeeball says:

    Oh man, I love this guy. Can we ask him about stripping first amendment rights from Catholics? If he wants to claim that Islam is “a complete geo-political structure,” what does he think of a religion that is actually headquartered in its own internationally recognized nation and is one of the 5 largest landholders on earth? If that isn’t a complete geo-political structure then I don’t know what is.

  13. DrDaveT says:

    I don’t blame the rubes in GA 10

    It’s an interesting question: at what point do people become responsible for their own blind, hateful ignorance? When is “that’s how I was raised” an explanation, but not an excuse?

    It’s not like these people don’t get TV and radio and newspapers from the non-batsh!t portions of Georgia, or the rest of America. Or, y’know, the actual text of the actual New Testament…

  14. rudderpedals says:

    Georgia’s a one-party state. The guy who worries about one-party states should chime in as to whether Georgia’s political monoculture is problem right now.

  15. JohnMcC says:

    With that mental twitch that makes me a liberal, I think someone ought to point out that the “rubes” who elected Rev Hice numbered something like 27,000 (in a district with roughly 700,000 total population) and that he failed to carry 10 of the 25 counties in Ga 10. (h/t – GaPundit-dot-com)

    For the optimists, there’s a lot of digital ‘ink’ detailing how Georgia has an excellent chance of turning ‘purple’ in the ’14 election cycle.

  16. Grumpy Realist says:

    Guess that outreach to Moslems was going too well, eh?

    China’s leaders must be high-fiving like mad right now. Like the Palestinians, we never miss an opportunity to make a mistake…

  17. James in Silverdale, WA says:

    On the plus side, he won’t occupy Broun’s place on the Science Committee. For a while, anyway.

  18. al-Ameda says:

    Jody Hice, a conservative pastor who believes First Amendment protections do not apply to Muslims and warned of a homosexual plot to sodomize children may soon be going to Congress.

    Hice won the Republican primary in Georgia’s 10th District on Tuesday. Given the district’s hard conservative lean, Hice will likely win the general election in November.

    To paraphrase the late (no-so-great) Nebraska Senator Roman Hruska: Even morons have a right to be represented.