The Independent
Republican candidate’s children warn people not to vote for him: ‘He must be stopped’
Steve West, who once said ‘Hitler was right,’ won the Republican nomination for a state representative seat in Missouri: YouTube/Screenshot.
A Republican candidate’s own children have warned voters in Missouri against electing their “fanatic” father to the state assembly, just days before the midterms.
“A lot of his views are just very out there,” Emily West said of her father, Steve West.
“He’s made multiple comments that are racist and homophobic and how he doesn’t like the Jews,” she told the Kansas City Star this week.
“I can’t imagine him being in any level of government.”
Her brother, Andy West, told the newspaper his father is a “fanatic” that “must be stopped”.
“His ideology is pure hatred. It’s totally insane … If he gets elected, it would legitimize him. Then he would become a state official, and he’s saying that Jews shouldn’t even have civil rights,” he said.
Antisemitic and homophobic comments by Steve West, who goes by the name “Jack Justice” on his YouTube channel, have come to light since he comfortably won his Republican primary in August.
“Looking back in history, unfortunately, Hitler was right about what was taking place in Germany,” he said on a radio show in 2017.
In attacks on the LGBT+ community, the 64-year-old has said homosexuality and paedophilia are “absolutely linked” and described women’s athletics as a “breeding ground for lesbianism”.
Just this week, Steve West told NBC News, without providing evidence: “The homosexual world, they are by much greater per cent predators – especially when it comes to boys.”
The Missouri Republican Party, which does not endorse him, has previously branded his comments “shocking and vile” and said his rhetoric has “absolutely no place in the party”.
Despite the party’s condemnation, Steve West still has the opportunity to become the Republican state representative of the state’s 15th district on Tuesday.
“I’m deeply disturbed by his candidacy,” Jon Carpenter, the Democratic incumbent, said of his opponent. “It’s my hope that the voters of the 15th district overwhelmingly reject that kind of bigotry on election day.”