Less than a week after he picked up a coveted endorsement from Donald Trump, Arizona GOPSenate hopeful Blake Masters also secured the backing of an infamous neo-Nazi troll who runs a racist news site named for the Nazi newspaper Der Sturmer.
According to Jewish Insider, Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin said he “[could not] give a more forceful endorsement” of Mr Masters and called for “anyone in Arizona” who is not a known neo-Nazi adherent to reach out to the Republican candidate’s campaign with queries as to “what kind of help” he might need.
Mr Anglin joined Mr Trump in endorsing the Peter Thiel-backed candidate after he was accused of assaulting a Democratic activist who came to one of his events wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt.
“This is exactly the kind of man this country needs,” said Mr Anglin, who has spent the last few years evading lawsuits brought by victims of harassment campaigns he has orchestrated from his website.
Earlier this year, a Virginia federal judge entered a default judgment against him in a lawsuit brought by residents of Charlottesville, Virginia, where Mr Anglin had organized the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally during which an anti-racist counter-protester, Heather Hoyer, was murdered by neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr.
Mr Anglin, also defaulted in a $14m lawsuit brought against him by the Southern Poverty Law Centre on behalf of Tanya Gersh, a Montana real estate agent who was the victim of a harassment campaign Mr Anglin masterminded through his website.
His preferred candidate, Mr Masters, is currently leading the race to be the GOP candidate who will take on Senator Mark Kelly in the November general election.
But Mr Masters, who has made a number of controversial statements — including claiming that the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol was orchestrated by the FBI and blaming gun violence in the US on “Black people, frankly” — trails Mr Kelly in most public polling.
