Kansas school board candidate wants ‘pro-white country with protected white majority’
Naked hatred will be on a Kansas election ballot Tuesday.
Josh Wells, a Hutchinson-area man with Proud Boys and other alleged right-wing extremist ties, is nostalgic for the good old days when the U.S. was a “pro-white country with a protected white majority.” He’s running for the Haven USD 312 Board of Education.
A group calling itself the Midwest Youth Liberation Front unearthed Wells’ avowed longing to establish a “white nationalism and or a pro-Western Christian theocracy with a protected white majority status. Whichever one is more obtainable.” Because “every race deserves a homeland.”
“Wells’ admitted goal of his new Midwest Nationalist Party is to establish a white ethno-state,” the liberation front wrote on Twitter. “Wells openly praises the death of Black people, spreads Nazi Germany symbolism, and thinks non-White people don’t belong in America.”
It’s another hot, sleepy August election. Turnout is always low. But “you wouldn’t want somebody with that mix of hate and anger and misinformation preferably in any kind of leadership, let alone on a school board,” says state Sen. Cindy Holscher, Democrat of Overland Park, who has been monitoring political races for extremism, especially in school board elections. “I suspect there are more individuals like this person, maybe not quite as vocal. And that’s concerning.”
How concerning? According to the group who outed him, Wells claims to have been visited by the FBI, apparently for his Proud Boys connections — notably on Jan. 5, the day before the Capitol riot.
“In this era of half-truths and lies that weaken our institutions of government that, for years, were respected,” says former U.S. attorney for Kansas Barry Grissom, “we take comments from white supremacists and people who are on the fringe and we just now kind of shrug our shoulders like it’s no big deal. That, to me, is a cancer on our society.”
Wells told the Wichita Eagle that the Proud Boys — three of whom from Kansas City were arrested for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — have been unfairly maligned. “Anyone who actually knows a Proud Boy would be the first to tell you that we’re all good guys and stand up for ourselves, our brothers and family and the rest of the country.”
He also laments that, “for well over a year now groups of people have terrorized communities” — we’ll assume he means those protesting for racial equality — “but by God if a white Christian man decides to stand up for what’s right, well, then you portray him to be a white supremacist.”
No, if you involve yourself in white supremacist groups and talk about forming a country of “white nationalism and or a pro-Western Christian theocracy,” then perhaps some get that impression of you.
It’s the same impression the nation may get of Haven USD 312 if he somehow wins on Tuesday.
This story was originally published August 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.