A Republican Congressional primary contender in New York who just last year praised Adolf Hitler for the Nazi leader’s ostensible command of crowds lost his Tuesday election.
During a February 13, 2021, episode of The r-House Radio Show, which airs in Buffalo, Carl Paladino — the Republican in question — was asked for ideas about encouraging the population to envision “change.” “I was thinking the other day about somebody had mentioned on the radio Adolf Hitler and how he aroused the crowds,” Paladino replied. “And he would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just — they were hypnotized by him. That’s, I guess, I guess that’s the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer, has been there and done it.” Paladino was running in New York’s 23rd Congressional district against Nick Langworthy, the chair of the state GOP. As of early Wednesday, Langworthy had 52.1 percent of the vote, while Paladino had 47.9 percent.
Ahead of the election, Paladino obtained endorsements from prominent figures on the far-right including Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Paladino was also endorsed by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the third-ranking Republican in the House who faced criticism for putting out rhetoric that observers equated with the so-called great replacement theory, which entails the delusional notion shadowy elites are intentionally trying to numerically overwhelm white populations with immigrants and, more specifically, non-white people. As summarized by Rolling Stone, Langworthy and Stefanik ended up at odds after Langworthy got behind the gubernatorial bid of Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) as Stefanik considered launching her own campaign for New York’s governorship.
Paladino, meanwhile, also suggested in an interview with a right-wing journalist that Attorney General Merrick Garland should be executed, although he later claimed he wasn’t being serious. Notably, it appeared Paladino won the largest county population in the district, Erie, with 66.1 percent of the vote as of early Wednesday. Langworthy nabbed just 33.9 percent. Langworthy won every other county population in the district. The district leans Republican, so whoever won the GOP primary was likely to become the new Congressional representative for the area after the November elections.
The district is currently represented by Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.), who announced his retirement amid criticism from his party for support of a federal ban on assault-style weapons. Jacobs’s district includes suburbs of Buffalo, where a May mass shooting perpetrated by a white supremacist ended with 10 dead at a local supermarket. Jacobs is in his first full term in Congress, and he was originally running for re-election — until he ended the campaign amid backlash. “We have a problem in our country in terms of both our major parties. If you stray from a party position, you are annihilated,” Jacobs remarked. “Local gun rights groups posted his cellphone number on the internet, and local and state party leaders began pulling their support, one by one,” The New York Times summarizes of what happened after Jacobs revealed his support for assault weapons restrictions. Jacobs was even endorsed by Trump at one point, but the party’s support shriveled.
