American politician
Michael Anthony Peroutka
(born 1952) is an American
far-right
politician, lawyer, and
neo-Confederate
activist
[1]
[2]
from
Maryland
. He was the
Republican
nominee for
Attorney General of Maryland
in
2022
, and was the
Constitution Party
candidate for president in
2004
.
Peroutka is a former member of the
League of the South
, a
white supremacist
and
white nationalist
organization designated by the
Southern Poverty Law Center
as a hate group.
[2]
[3]
Peroutka is known for his pro-
secessionist
views, and has said that he is "still angry" that
Maryland did not join the Confederacy in the Civil War
. Peroutka has voiced support for
disproven conspiracy theories
about the
September 11 terrorist attacks
, falsely claiming that the attacks were an "inside job" accomplished using explosives.
[4]
Peroutka attended
Loyola University Maryland
and the
University of Baltimore School of Law
. He was the chairman of the Constitution Party of Maryland and a member of the executive committee of the Constitution Party National Committee. In 2014, he became a
Republican
and won election to the County Council of
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
, representing District 5.
[5]
He is of
Czech descent
.
[6]
2004 presidential campaign
[
edit
]
In the
2004 United States presidential election
, he was the
Constitution Party
's candidate. His campaign slogan was "God, Family, Republic" and heavily featured
Christian
and
socially conservative
themes. His running mate was
independent Baptist
minister
Chuck Baldwin
. Peroutka gained support from many
paleoconservatives
, and was endorsed by the America First Party and
Alaskan Independence Party
.
[7]
Peroutka was also endorsed by the
League of the South
and supported by a group called "Southerners for Peroutka".
[8]
Peroutka accepted the endorsement from the League at their 2004 national convention. Far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones
stated that he would be voting for Peroutka.
[9]
Peroutka appeared on the far-right radio show
The Political Cesspool
to promote his campaign, describing it as a "Christian/Constitutionalist radio program" and "a great blessing to our cause".
[10]
Paleoconservative political commentator
Pat Buchanan
stated on the September 7, 2004, edition of
Hardball with Chris Matthews
that he was considering voting for Peroutka.
[11]
The November 8, 2004, issue of
The American Conservative
contained endorsements by
Taki Theodoracopulos
[12]
and
Howard Phillips
[13]
(the latter having founded the party Peroutka represented). Peroutka received just over 0.01% of the national popular vote, finishing fifth nationally with almost 150,000 votes. This was a similar showing to previous Constitution Party candidacies of Howard Phillips, and made the party the only third party to increase its share of the vote in 2004.
Kentucky
Republican
politician
Matt Bevin
's support for Peroutka's candidacy was used in a 2013
attack ad
by opponent
Mitch McConnell
.
[14]
Political positions
[
edit
]
Peroutka is a
Christian nationalist
who holds views outside the mainstream of U.S. political discourse, even within the modern Republican Party.
[15]
He said that government officials must "take a biblical worldview and apply it to civil law and government" and referred to the principle of
separation of church and state
as a "great lie."
[15]
Peroutka views public schools as a Communist plot;
[15]
he supports
homeschooling
and opposes government funding for education, stating that it is "the 10th plank in the Communist Manifesto."
[15]
[16]
He rejects laws and constitutional protections protecting abortion and
same-sex marriage
.
[15]
In 2006, he voted in favor of disaffiliating the
Independent American Party of Nevada
from the Constitution Party due to their allowance for abortion in certain circumstances.
[17]
In 2012, the
Montgomery Advertiser
reported that Peroutka was the single-largest donor to
Roy Moore
's 2012 campaign for the Alabama Supreme Court, having contributed $50,000 of the total $78,000 received by Moore until December 31, 2011.
[18]
Peroutka is a former board member of the
League of the South
, a
neo-Confederate
organization that is
classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center
as a
hate group
.
[15]
[19]
He was a member of the group's board of directors from 2012 to 2014.
[2]
In 2012, the
Human Rights Campaign
called Peroutka an "active white supremacist and secessionist sympathizer" due to his ties to the League.
[20]
Peroutka told
The Baltimore Sun
that he "continues to be a proud member of the League of the South," since it "has a belief that the central government is too large, too spend-thrift and too out-of-control," but he called HRC's characterization of him as a white-supremacist sympathizer "absurd" and "not at all true."
[21]
In 2012, a video showed Peroutka asking a group to stand for the national anthem, and then leading them in the
de facto
Confederate
anthem, "
Dixie
".
[22]
In 2013, he stated that "all elevation or denigration of individuals or groups based on skin color is immoral and shameful."
[23]
[24]
In October 2014, during his campaign for the Anne Arundel County Council, Peroutka announced that he had resigned from the League of the South board of directors and was no longer a member after discovering statements made by members that were "contrary to [his] beliefs".
[25]
He declined to disavow the group during his 2022 campaign for Maryland attorney general.
[2]
Split from the National Constitution Party
[
edit
]
In 2006, the Maryland Constitution Party disaffiliated from the national party along with other state parties following a schism at the national party's 2006 convention, in which it failed to disaffiliate the Nevada party despite its chairman and gubernatorial candidate's support for legal abortion in some cases. Peroutka stated, "At this point I could not, in good faith, represent the Constitution Party nor endorse any of its candidates. Unless serious changes occur, I could not run for President in 2008."
[26]
Peroutka's supporters, however, collected enough signatures to get his name approved as a
write-in candidate
in Georgia for the 2008 presidential election.
[27]
Republican Party
[
edit
]
Election in 2014 to Anne Arundel County Council
[
edit
]
In February 2014, Peroutka switched his voter registration from Constitution Party to
Republican
and filed to run for a seat on the Anne Arundel County Council as well as a seat on the county's Republican Central Committee.
[28]
Peroutka won the seat on the Central Committee, becoming an official representative of the Republican Party in
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
. Peroutka also won the primary election for county council from District 5 on June 24, defeating a number of other Republican candidates, including the incumbent councilman Dick Ladd. He won by 38 votes over Maureen Carr-York to become the Republican nominee in the November 2014 general election.
[29]
Peroutka won in the general election with 53 percent of the vote and a margin of victory of nearly 1,900 votes over his Democratic opponent.
[5]
[30]
His district covered
Severna Park
,
Millersville
,
Arnold
, and
Broadneck
.
[31]
Peroutka, along with the rest of the council, was sworn in on December 1, 2014.
[30]
Loss in 2018 re-election campaign
[
edit
]
Running for reelection from District 5 in June 2018, Peroutka lost the Republican primary to candidate Amanda Fiedler, 53 percent to 47 percent.
[32]
2022 campaign for Attorney General of Maryland
[
edit
]
In February 2022, Peroutka filed to run for
Attorney General of Maryland
.
[31]
He ran on the slogan "Liberty forever, Mandates never!" and a platform of opposing
COVID-19 restrictions
, fear of crime and immigration, election integrity, and opposition to abortion.
[33]
[34]
Peroutka ran on a platform in which he prioritize what he called "God-given, constitutionally-protected rights" over state and federal laws, specifically those on
abortion
and
same-sex marriage
. He also pledged to take legal action against Governor
Larry Hogan
and local health officers for actions they took to slow the spread of COVID-19.
[35]
[36]
Peroutka won the Republican
primary
on July 19, 2022, with 55.0 percent of the vote over his challenger Jim Shalleck.
[37]
[38]
Peroutka's victory made him one of several extremist candidates nominated by the Republican Party in 2022.
[39]
During the general election, he said that he would accept the results of the election if they "appear to be lawful and legal", but supported legal efforts by state delegate and Republican
nominee for governor
Dan Cox
to block the counting of mail-in ballots ahead of Election Day.
[35]
Peroutka was defeated by Democratic
U.S. Representative
Anthony Brown
in the general election on November 8, 2022.
[40]
On November 10, Peroutka said he would not concede the election to Brown, claiming without evidence that "many odd and suspicious incidents were reported by poll watchers, and more reports are being gathered today."
[41]
Support for creationism
[
edit
]
In May 2014, Peroutka, acting on behalf of the Elizabeth Streb Peroutka foundation, a charity he and his brother Stephen established and named after their mother, donated an
Allosaurus
skeleton to the
Creation Museum
,
[42]
a 70,000-square-foot museum in
Petersburg, Kentucky
, that promotes the pseudoscientific
young Earth creationist
explanation of the origins of the universe put forth in
Biblical literalism
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
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.
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.
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- ^
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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.
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.
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a
b
c
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e
f
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- ^
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.
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.
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.
- ^
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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.
- ^
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.
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.
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.
- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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. Retrieved
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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"
.
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- ^
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.
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.
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.
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.
External links
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]
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