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Paul Nehlen

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Paul Nehlen (born May 9, 1969) is a perennial candidate for the House of Representatives.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] He is currently a candidate in the Republican primary for US Representative from Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, which is being vacated by Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 2018, the Republican Party of Wisconsin released an unanimous statement cutting ties with Nehlen, calling his views incompatible with American conservatism.[8]

In February 2018, he went on former Klu Klux Klan member David Duke’s radio show, and stated that Trump's proposed border fence should include automatic turrets. Nehlen stated that any Mexican immigrant who approaches the American border should "be treated as an enemy combatant. Man, woman or child.”[9] Nehlen is also running on an intensely anti-Israel platform, blaming Republican support on evangelical Christians and Jews.[10] He is also a critic of the Presidency of Donald Trump, calling him a "cuck" and a failure.[9]

In April 2018, Nelhen doxed alt-right people that he saw as too moderate, willing to compromise, or unwilling to take militant street action.[11]

Early life

Nehlen was born in Ohio, and has lived in Delavan, Wisconsin since 2014.[12] His business career has included stints at Deltech Engineering / United Dominion Industries and SPX Corporation,[13] and he served until 2016 as the Senior VP of Operations at Neptune-Benson LLC. a subsidiary of Evoqua Water Technologies. He holds several patents related to filtering and manufacturing methods,[14] and registered in 2014 a consulting entity, Blue Skies Global LLC, which does not appear to have conducted any business to date.[15] Nehlen was a Midwest Region advisory board member of Operation Homefront until 2016, and is married to Gabriela Lira. They have no children of their own, but Nehlen has two grown sons from a prior marriage.[16]

White nationalist campaigning

Paul Nehlen said he was reading The Culture of Critique (1998) and described it as "outstanding so far".[17][18][19]

Nehlen holds alt-right, white nationalist, and antisemitic views.[20][21][22]

Nehlen has embraced alt-right memes. He was originally backed by Steve Bannon.[23][24][25]

Nehlen endorsed Republican Roy Moore in the 2017 Alabama U.S. Senate special election.[26][24]

Nehlen frequently uses the slogan: 'It's OK to be white.'[27] On Twitter, he suggested Ari Cohn convert to Christianity to "fill a Jesus-shaped hole" inside of him.[27][28]He also used the Triple parentheses in one of his tweets, read Kevin B. MacDonald's Culture of Critique, and has been interviewed by The Right Stuff's Fash the Nation and far-right vlogger Baked Alaska. He called John Cardillo and Kurt Schlichter "shekels-for-hire" and posted a tweet with the antisemitic catchphrase "The goyim know" (referencing a popular theory about an alleged Jewish conspiracy).[29]

Nehlen also posted on Twitter a picture of Paul Ryan and Randy Bryce being dropped out of a helicopter, a reference to death flights, a method of executing political opponents. Responses to this message included death flight memes of former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet (who was known for executing opponents with death flights) and Pepe the Frog.[30]

On February 9, 2018, in response to claims that prehistoric Britons probably had dark skin, Nehlen tweeted a picture of Prince Harry with a reconstruction of a prehistoric dark-skinned Briton superimposed over Meghan Markle, with the words "Honey, does this tie make my face look pale?"[31][32] Nehlen was subsequently permanently banned from[33] Twitter, which Nehlen described as a violation of his free speech.[34][35]

Political career

Despite receiving endorsements from Breitbart News and prominent personalities such as Laura Ingraham and Sarah Palin,[36] Paul Nehlen was defeated in the 2016 Wisconsin's 1st congressional district primaries, losing with 16% of the votes to Paul Ryan with 84% of the votes.[37] When he posted a ballot selfie on election day, the Town of Delavan police said he had committed election fraud, a Class I felony. The police said he deliberately delayed an investigation by doing a factory reset on the phone and erasing the SIM card. Assistant District Attorney Haley Johnson said the ballot selfie was "technically a violation" of law, but decided not to issue criminal charges, stating Nehlen had "ignorantly posted the image to draw attention to his candidacy," and not vote buying. Johnson wrote "It is unfortunate that Mr. Nehlen showed such little regard for a law enforcement investigation."[38]

Nehlen is currently running again to replace Paul Ryan, this time with Nick Polce also in the race for the 2018 Republican primary.[39][40] He was backed by Steve Bannon up until the Roy Moore defeat, now being denounced by Breitbart.[41][27][42] On December 27, 2017, Bannon's adviser Arthur Schwartz said Nehlen is "dead to us." Breitbart senior editor Joel Pollak said: "We don't support him."[43] On December 27, Pollak tweeted that Breitbart had not covered Nehlen in months. However, as recently as December 18, he had been a featured guest on Curt Schilling's Breitbart radio show Whatever It Takes; Schilling unequivocally expressed his endorsement of Nehlen.[44] Callum Borchers of the Washington Post said "Breitbart’s move is political calculus" because it "needs to align itself with politicians who can win to help regain the appearance of influence Moore’s defeat damaged."[45]

On February 13, 2018, Wisconsin GOP spokesman Alec Zimmerman said, "Nehlen and his ideas have no place in the Republican Party." Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said, "It looks to me like he’s a racist bigot." Ryan's campaign spokesman Kevin Seifert said, "It has long been clear that Paul Nehlen holds bigoted views." Nehlen responded with, “I am a member of the Republican Party regardless of what their traitorous, spineless apparatchiks believe," adding his agenda should "be the centerpiece of the Republican Party."[8]

On December 14, 2017, Nehlen's campaign released a statement calling for a federal law banning large social media companies from censoring or restricting "lawful speech" on their platforms. Nehlen's proposed bill includes fines of $500,000 for each violation. Supporters of Nehlen have used the hashtag #ShallNotCensor online to show their support for this position. Limitations to "lawful speech" would include "No publishing any individual’s nonpublic residential address, telephone number, or email address without their consent".[46]. However, Nehlen's campaign has posted private phone and email addresses without their consent on the website and then tweeted a link to them.[47][48]

Electoral history

#E81B23 #E81B23 #DDDDDD
U.S. House of Representatives, Wisconsin's 1st district, Republican primary, 2016[49]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Paul Ryan 57,364 84.06%
Republican Paul Nehlen 10,864 15.92%
Scattering N/A 15 0.02%
Total 68,243 100%

References

  1. ^ Sager, Jessica (February 22, 2018). "Meghan Markle Targeted in Anthrax Scare". New York Post. Retrieved February 23, 2018. Last month, white nationalist and Wisconsin Republican congressional candidate Paul Nehlen was banned from Twitter over racist imagery of the actress...
  2. ^ "Alarm Over White Supremacist Candidates". Al Jazeera. Asked by Duke if it was wrong to support the preservation of a white-majority country, Nehlen replied that it was "right and righteous" to do so. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  3. ^ Suebsaeng, Asawin. "Breitbart Still Wants to Make Paul Ryan Miserable, Even Without 'F**king Nazi' Paul Nehlen Around". The Daily Beast. The website distanced itself from white nationalist Wisconsin candidate Paul Nehlen… {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  4. ^ "Wisconsin candidate's embrace of white nationalism seeks to further racist ideas in political mainstream". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2018-02-11. On Twitter, and to a larger degree on the alt-right's preferred social media platform Gab, Nehlen has spent months curating an image of a sometimes ironic, but most certainly sincere, white nationalist willing to say things. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  5. ^ Ghosh, Sutrishna (2018-02-11). "'Racist' troll who superimposed Cheddar Man image over Meghan Markle's face sparks outrage". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  6. ^ "The Democrats' Fake Mustache". Weekly Standard. 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  7. ^ Stolberg, Sheryl Gay (2018-04-04). "Can Paul Ryan Be Defeated? Maybe Not, but His Race Is 'a Circus'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  8. ^ a b Sommerhauser, Mark. "State GOP: 'No place in the Republican Party' for Wisconsin congressional candidate banned by Twitter". Wisconsin State Journal madison.com. Retrieved 2018-02-16.
  9. ^ a b "The alt-right's first candidate is too right for many white nationalists". Newsweek. 2018-03-14. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  10. ^ "Breitbart cuts ties with Paul Ryan rival Paul Nehlen over anti-Semitic rhetoric". Haaretz Com. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  11. ^ "In another major stumble for the alt-right, pundit "Ricky Vaughn" allegedly doxed by Paul Nehlen". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  12. ^ Miller, S.A. (March 29, 2016). "Businessman Paul Nehlen to challenge Paul Ryan from right in primary - Says he's 'had it' with House speaker betraying conservatives". www.washingtontimes.com. Washington Times. Archived from the original on June 4, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "Paul Nehlen's Business Timeline". www.electnehlen.com. Nehlen For Congress. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ "Patents by Inventor Paul F. Nehlen, III". patents.justia.com. Justia. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ O'Donnell, Dan (March 7, 2017). "Is Paul Ryan's Primary Opponent Really a Small Business Owner?". newstalk1130.iheart.com. News/Talk 1130 WISN. Archived from the original on September 25, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ Zambo, Kristin (April 10, 2016). "Delavan businessman hopes to unseat Ryan". journaltimes.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ "Neo-Nazis celebrated Republican Paul Nehlen's endorsement of an anti-Semitic book". Newsweek. 2017-12-27. Archived from the original on 2018-01-13. Retrieved 2018-01-23. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Nehlen, Paul (2017-12-26). "Currently reading pic.twitter.com/8UVUeEn7PC". @pnehlen. Archived from the original on 2018-01-05. Retrieved 2018-01-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ Nehlen, Paul (4 Jan 2018). "As you know, I'm currently reading The Culture of Critique, which is outstanding so far. Newsweek recetly [sic] published a grotesque smear piece on the book. Here is the response to that piece by the book's author, Professor Kevin MacDonald. …". @pnehlen. Archived from the original on 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2018-01-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ "A Republican candidate for Congress has openly embraced neo-Nazi meme culture". Newsweek. 2017-12-20. Archived from the original on 2017-12-26. Retrieved 2017-12-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ Guttman, Nathan (2017-12-26). "Paul Nehlen, Paul Ryan's 'Alt-Right' Opponent, Goes On 'Shekel-For-Hire' Rant". The Forward. Archived from the original on 2017-12-27. Retrieved 2017-12-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ "Bannon-backed candidate advocates murdering Paul Ryan with a fascist 'death flight'". RawStory. 2017-12-20. Archived from the original on 2017-12-27. Retrieved 2017-12-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "Steve Bannon Candidates Fail". National Review. Archived from the original on 2017-11-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ a b "Meet the White Nationalist Who Wants to Replace House Speaker Paul Ryan". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2018-01-02. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ Mathias, Christopher. "A Republican Running To Replace Paul Ryan Comes With White Nationalist Street Cred". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 2017-12-28. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ "Alleged White Nationalist Tied to President Trump and Roy Moore Challenging Paul Ryan". www.christianpost.com. Archived from the original on 2017-12-27. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ a b c "Meet the White Nationalist Who Wants to Replace House Speaker Paul Ryan". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2018-01-02. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ Nehlen, Paul (19 Dec 2017). "See, now we're getting somewhere @AriCohn. You can't fill a Jesus shaped hole in your heart by trolling the internet, calling people names". Twitter @pnehlen. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ Guttman, Nathan (2017-12-26). "Paul Nehlen, Paul Ryan's 'Alt-Right' Opponent, Goes On 'Shekel-For-Hire' Rant". The Forward. Archived from the original on 2017-12-27. Retrieved 2017-12-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ "Bannon-backed candidate advocates murdering Paul Ryan with a fascist 'death flight'". RawStory. 2017-12-20. Archived from the original on 2017-12-27. Retrieved 2017-12-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  31. ^ Paul Nehlen (9 February 2018). "Paul Nehlen on Twitter (tweet of 3:27 pm - 9 Feb 2018)". Twitter.com.
  32. ^ TOM PORTER (11 February 2018). "GOP CANDIDATE BRANDED 'SAD' AND 'SICK' FOR MEGHAN MARKLE TWEET". newsweek.com.
  33. ^ Newsweek
  34. ^ Ghosh, Sutrishna (2018-02-11). "'Racist' troll who superimposed Cheddar Man image over Meghan Markle's face sparks outrage". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  35. ^ "Paul Nehlen Twitter account suspended". washingtontimes.com. 11 February 2018.
  36. ^ "Paul Nehlen and Breitbart's Shameless Opportunism". National Review. 2018-01-05. Archived from the original on 2018-01-06. Retrieved 2018-01-12. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  37. ^ "Paul Nehlen". Ballotpedia. Archived from the original on 2017-05-04. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  38. ^ "Police: Republican Paul Nehlen deliberately delayed investigation into ballot selfie". FOX6Now.com. 2017-07-11. Archived from the original on 2018-01-01. Retrieved 2017-12-31. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  39. ^ "POLCE, NICK - Candidate overview - FEC.gov". FEC.gov. Archived from the original on 2017-12-27. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  40. ^ "Paul Nehlen and Breitbart's Shameless Opportunism". 21 December 2017. Archived from the original on 27 December 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  41. ^ "Steve Bannon Candidates Fail". National Review. Archived from the original on 2017-11-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  42. ^ Mathias, Christopher. "A Republican Running To Replace Paul Ryan Comes With White Nationalist Street Cred". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 2017-12-28. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  43. ^ Darcy, Oliver. "Bannon adviser: Paul Ryan challenger Paul Nehlen is 'dead to us' after inflammatory tweets". Archived from the original on 2017-12-27. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  44. ^ Legum, Judd (December 28, 2017). "Breitbart quietly deletes recent interview with openly racist congressional candidate". ThinkProgress. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  45. ^ Borchers, Callum (2017-12-28). "Analysis | The real reason Breitbart abandoned 'pro-white' Paul Nehlen". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2018-01-01. Retrieved 2017-12-31. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  46. ^ "#ShallNotCensor - Paul Nehlen for Congress". www.electnehlen.com. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  47. ^ "Paul Nehlen Posts List of Critics, Says '74 are Jews'". Wisconsin Public Radio. 2018-01-31. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  48. ^ "Paul Ryan challenger posts phone numbers of critics after claiming '74 are Jews'". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  49. ^ "Wisconsin Elections Commission". Wisconsin Elections Commission. August 9, 2016. Archived from the original on December 3, 2016. Retrieved December 2, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
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