(July 20 update: Allen West, backed by religious-right leaders and a right-wing megadonor, defeated incumbent James Dickey to become chair of the Texas Republican Party.)
Allen West, who was elected to Congress from Florida as part of the 2010 Tea Party wave and was defeated in 2012 after a single term, is now raising money for My Faith Votes, one of several voter identification and voter-mobilization projects designed to maximize turnout among conservative Christians. West is also running an insurgent campaign to replace the current chair of the Texas Republican Party.
A fundraising email from West was sent by My Faith Votes on Thursday with the subject line “Americans only kneel to Almighty God.” West wrote that America has been getting worse since “the secular Left began ripping God away from our schools and public life.”
“We are not the center of the universe — He is; and if we can find it within ourselves to work together and get our priorities in order, our society will be happier, safer, and more just,” West wrote. “I believe in My Faith Votes because achieving that future is their mission.”
West’s message continues on the donation page:
Right now, a fairly small but loud radical mob is looting our cities, defacing our monuments and ruining the livelihood of hardworking Americans of all colors in our inner cities.
Corporate America and much of our political leadership is too weak to push back, so they kneel and echo their empty slogans. They celebrate the taking of innocent lives in the womb all in the name of “choice.”
What if the silent majority of Bible-believing Christians across this nation realized that we are bigger than the anarchist and Marxist mobs (we are), and that we, not they, will decide the future?
By turning out millions of Christians, My Faith Votes is working to turn this vision into a reality and I strongly urge you to join us in our work at My Faith Votes with your donation today.
The red-baiting messaging is consistent with West’s rhetoric when he was in Congress. During a town hall meeting in 2012, someone asked how many members of Congress were “card-carrying Marxists.” West answered, “I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party.” A staffer later explained he was talking about members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
My Faith Votes was founded by Sealy Yates, a Christian lawyer and activist. It claims to have “made a measurable impact on Christian voter turnout in 2016.” Former Alabama governor and failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee serves as its honorary chair; Johnnie Moore, a member of President Donald Trump’s inner circle of evangelical advisers, serves as its spokesperson. In spite of its clear electoral goals, My Faith Votes operates as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
Here’s how West’s letter describes the group’s current activities:
They are raising up the next generation of Christian voters. They are engaging churches to reach their congregation to vote. They are recruiting one million voters in 11 states and providing voter resources for all 100,000 elections in 2020. And they’re leveraging the latest technology to engage non-voting believers.
West continued:
I hear often about the silent majority in America — that broad, diverse group of patriotic citizens who believe in Judeo-Christian principles and keep our nation grounded and working.
Well, it’s time to light that Bat-Signal in the sky because those people are needed.
When our institutions are under siege by a radical socialist agenda, and our Constitution is being hijacked, silence isn’t an option. We need to be involved and courageous for biblical truth.
West’s campaign to chair the Republican Party of Texas—which is being heavily funded by GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein—sounds similar themes. “Only by returning to our conservative, constitutional, and pro-life values can we turn back Godless progressive socialism,” he said in a campaign press release.
It’s not as if the Texas GOP has been infiltrated by godless progressives, at least based on its 2018 party platform, which embraces a long litany of far-right positions. It calls for the “abolition” of abortion and the granting of legal rights to fertilized eggs and fetuses. The platform calls for federal legislation and court rulings the GOP believes infringe on states’ rights to be “ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified” —including the 2015 marriage equality ruling. It also calls for the repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which allows for the appointment by the governor of a U.S. senator in the event of a suddenly vacated seat in the governor’s state) and a return to U.S. senators being appointed by state legislatures. It also calls for an Article V Convention of States to propose constitutional amendments that would restrict the power of the federal government.
West’s campaign has been endorsed by a number of religious-right leaders, including religious-right “historian” David Barton (a former Texas GOP vice chair), Eagle Forum’s Cathie Adams (a former state chair), and Family Research Council executive vice president Jerry Boykin.
The election for state chair was to be held as part of the state party’s July 16-18 convention in Houston, but this week Houston’s mayor ordered its cancellation because of the surge in coronavirus cases there.
In other news, West recently took time to attack the NAACP and Black Lives Matter.
