I found another Republican politician that I thought y'all might be interested in learning about. Meet Hung Cao, who is running for the US Senate against Tim Kaine of Virginia.
I first heard about him in 2022 when I saw a bunch of campaign signs during my travels through Loudoun County which is just across the river from where I live in WV. I looked him up and guess what? He's another GOP wingnut. He was soundly defeated in 2022, but now he's back for a Senate run—because nothing says success like losing.
The Washington Post covered his primary victory earlier this year as if he were a regular, normal candidate:
Cao, a refugee from Vietnam, arrived in the United States at age 4 and attended the U.S. Naval Academy. He served 25 years in Navy Special Operations and was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia before turning his attention to politics, he said in a campaign video.
"Tomorrow, we begin our campaign to save the country that saved my life," Cao said in a statement after the race was called. "I spent twenty-five years in the Navy, while Tim Kaine spent thirty years in elected office. The taxpayers signed the front of our paychecks for the same amount of time. The difference is this: Tim Kaine got rich, and I got scars."
He noted that the timing of the win coincides with a Biden administration policy that would give about half a million immigrants who are married to American citizens a pathway to citizenship for them and their children, which Cao called "amnesty."
But you know if I'm writing about him then he's got to be a wingnut. Why otherwise would the RNC have invited to speak at their convention? Let's go through some of the stuff he's said.
Like this:
In the interview with Sean Feucht — a California-based far-right pastor who led a movement against COVID-19 health restrictions and has rallied against "wokeness" at Disney — Cao lamented that Christianity has declined in influence in the United States over time, before referencing Wiccan communities in California.
"There's a place in Monterey, California called 'Lover's Point,'" Cao said. "The original name was 'Lovers of Christ Point, but now it's become — they took out the Christ, it's 'Lover's Point,' and it's really — Monterey's a very dark place now, a lot of witchcraft, and the Wiccan community has really taken over there."
"We can't let that happen in Virginia," he added.
Oh, and I looked up his comment about Lovers Point, and local folklore shows that it used to be called Lovers of Christ Point—back when it was a Methodist summer camp.
OK, how about this:
Earlier in the interview, Cao — a Vietnamese refugee — also remarked that he was African-American by virtue of having spent time in Niger as a child.
"Your history is like, breaking stereotype after stereotype," remarked Feucht. "And you're conservative, and you love God, and you love America."
"And I'm African-American because I grew up in Africa, too," Cao interjected.
More:
"I believe in God and…why we have a rainbow is because that's God's covenant to us, it's his promise to us he'll never wipe out the world again, so it's kind of arrogant for us to believe that we can we can destroy God's creation."
I'm a believer, and that's now how that works.
He's also a gun nut, an election denier, and anti-choice, because of course he is. One thing I do like about the various GOP candidates I've been showcasing is that for all of their shared commitment to misinformation and lies each of them is strange in their own unique way.
And people say that the GOP isn't committed to diversity.
All of them can take advice from this song.
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