WIRED flags far-right ties and rhetoric among US Republican candidates
A WIRED review says hundreds of Republican candidates for state and federal office have expressed hateful views or links to far-right groups, as US agencies report rising threats against public officials.
A review by WIRED of candidates running in November’s US midterm elections found hundreds of Republicans who, it says, have shared racist content, expressed hateful ideologies or associated with far-right groups and figures. The reporting profiles five races, while cautioning that the candidates’ positions and associations vary.
Data collected by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights and shared with WIRED indicates more than 500 state legislative candidates belong to Facebook groups promoting militias, gun rights and Christian nationalism.
The five candidates highlighted are Bo French, running for Texas Railroad Commissioner; Mark Lamb, the Republican nominee in Arizona’s 5th congressional district; and Brandon Herrera, the Republican candidate in Texas’s 23rd congressional district. WIRED describes allegations of racist, sexist or antisemitic statements and far-right ties in its coverage of their campaigns.
The report also examines Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins, whose former staffers and associates have faced scrutiny over reported ties to white supremacists and antisemitic content. Collins has said he condemns antisemitism and hate speech. In Florida, WIRED cites reporting that state legislative candidate Marshall Rawson attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally and has posted racist remarks.
The broader context is a rise in reported political threats. University of Maryland researchers recorded a 19 per cent increase in terrorism and targeted violence incidents in 2025 compared with 2024. The US Capitol Police reported threat assessment cases against members of Congress rose 58 per cent from 2024, while the US Marshals Service documented threats against almost 400 judges, about 5 per cent more than a year earlier.
