We found five Republican candidates for Congress who made racist, Islamophobic and pro-Confederate posts on Facebook

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We found five Republican candidates for Congress who made racist, Islamophobic and pro-Confederate posts on Facebook

We’ve even turned this into a game

You will be shocked to hear this, but there are loads of Republican politicians out there who made bigoted posts on Facebook, and we found five of them! They're candidates for the US Senate, House of Representatives or state Congress – some of them are career politicians – who can't stop saying extremely horrible things about Muslims, Jews, slaves during the Confederacy, wanting to kill refugees, or begging to be featured on the radio shows of anti-Semitic alt-right leaders. There's no bigotry in the platforms they're running on (which are all typical pro-Trump Republican fare), but dive into their Facebook accounts and you'll see a world of racist stuff.

It wasn't just that what these candidates were saying was shocking, but how easy it was to find it. With one Mississippi politician, all it took was typing "slavery" into her Facebook to reveal a slew of pro-Confederate posts.

So let's play a game of bigoted Republican candidate bingo – who has said the most terrible posts? Underneath each Republican, we've featured a bingo card for each of their bad comments.

Katherine Tate, Republican, running for US House of Representatives

Katherine Tate

Katherine Tate would like to represent Mississippi's 3rd Congressional District in Washington, DC. She would also like you to know that her family owned 100 slaves during the Confederacy, and that those slaves had a really nice time.

"They were well treated members of the family," she wrote in a Facebook post, referring to the human beings her great-grandparents owned, "and contributed to decision making for running the business."

'My family's slaves that we owned were fed and given clothes, so they actually had a great time'

After Emancipation, when her ancestors were legally obliged to free their slaves, Tate believes they would have been worse off. "Free? – ok – but now they were destitute. Before the war, they had enjoyed more legal rights than any other enslaved population in history. Food, clothing, shelter, bedding, etc. Sundays and Holidays off was granted FOR LIFE [sic], even in OLD AGE – and mothers could not be separated from family. Gradual freedom and rights of citizenship was inevitable, along with expanded education and the rest."

Tate, a former teacher who lives in Jackson, Mississippi, is also a peddler of bonkers conspiracy theories. She thinks billionaire philanthropist George Soros is trying to take down America (Soros is Jewish, which makes him a target of Jew-hating Republicans) and she thinks Muslims in London have markets where they sell slaves (they absolutely do not).

Tate also called a Nazi rally next to a statue of Robert E Lee, the Confederate general, a "fine day." She added in a post the following week that New Orleans' decision to remove the statue of Lee was a "disgrace."

We've contacted Tate for comment but never heard back. She will face off against six other Republicans in a primary this June 6th. The winner will head to the polls in November. Good luck, Katherine!

How Katherine Tate scores

Shane Hazel, Republican, running for US House of Representatives

Shane Hazel

Hazel, is a tall, handsome Marine Corps veteran from Georgia. He's running in Georgia's 7th Congressional District and has a slick campaign fighting to repeal (but not replace) Obamacare, abolish income tax and defund Planned Parenthood. He's even raised tens of thousands of dollars to push his hard-right message.

But did you know that he thinks Islam is sick and once posted about wanted to sink a ship of refugees? Underneath this photo, a friend of Hazel's wrote: "Maybe recon can accidentally sink it!!!" Hazel replied: "The navy should overtly sink it and send a message."

Another post Hazel made is this meme, which claims that "Islam offers" rape, pedophilia, beheadings, burning people alive and slavery. He wrote: "Disgusting doesn't even begin to paint the picture of Islam."

When someone on his post challenged Hazel for "hate spreading," he responded "more like fact spreading," and doubled down: "Jesus didn't teach pedophilia. Conversely the prophet Muhammad does. There are sick people of every religion. The difference is that Islam glorifies the sickness."

He said in another post that new US military dress code allowing beards and turbans was "BS," and advocated for airplanes to be filled with pigs, so that "all suicide bombers body parts left over from the blast will be feed [sic] to pigs… And we won't do this because we're afraid to offend radical Muslims?"

We called up Hazel and asked him to explain these posts, which, if you were being polite, you'd say contained Islamophobic and anti-immigrant views. He bristled at the accusation and said: "I'm not Islamophobic and I'm not anti-immigrant. I’m anti-radical Islam and I’m anti-illegal entry into our country."

Hazel said he was unable to remember the "Islam glorifies sickness" post off the top of his head. He then said: "Without any context, I really don't know where to begin with that. It doesn't sound like it, but…."

We then asked if he meant: "It doesn't sound like you?"

"No," he responded. "If you guys want to post something that is completely out of context with what I’ve just told you, that's up to you."

How Shane Hazel scores

Steve Von Loor, Republican, running for US House of Representatives

Steve Von Loor

Von Loor is running unopposed for the Republican nomination in North Carolina's 4th Congressional District. Like the other hopefuls ahead of him, he's pro-life, pro-gun, and really doesn't like Islam.

He also begged to go on the show of Nicholas Fuentes, a thoroughly racist goon of the alt-right. Fuentes became famous after marching at Charlottesville on the neo-Nazi side, and when a clip leaked of him saying "Jews hurt him in his daily existence," and that having sex with people of color would be "degenerate."

Congressional hopeful Von Loor wrote on Fuentes' Facebook: "Love your show. I would love to be interviewed by you."

Von Loor has received an endorsement from Dinesh D'Souza, a celebrated conservative pundit who made his name outing gay students when he was at Dartmouth. "Pay attention to what this guy is saying, and pay attention to what he stands for," D'Souza said.

Von Loor's Facebook is the usual mess of Islamophobic rubbish – he shared an item of fake news about how Islam was once banned in the US in the 50s. "Islam is trying to destroy America," he wrote underneath. "They don't want to assimilate," he added in another post. "They hate America so much and our way of life."

While we're on the subject of Von Loor's Facebook, we couldn't help but notice he likes to comment thirstily on photos of models.

Here he is commenting on a post by Venezuelan model Michelle Lewin, who posted a bikini pic and wrote: "Looks cold out there ?❄️." Von Loor, who this fall hopes to be elected to public office, said: "Of course. Estás con la nalga al aire!" which is best translated to "Of course. You have your ass out in the air!"

"Love your shoes," he added underneath another one of Venezuelan model Michelle Lewin's pics.

And here's a comment he made on Kim K's Facebook, in which he says: "Bring you [sic] black hair back! You look prettier like that ?"

We've contacted Von Loor for comment, and he's seen our message but has yet to respond.

How Steve Von Loor scores

John Schiess, Republican, running for US Senate

John Schiess

Schiess, whose name is one vowel away from the German for "shit," is a proud white supremacist from Wisconsin. He's running for the Senate, and has to win the Republican primary in August in order for a shot at the seat. Just how and why he hasn't been booted out the GOP is anyone's guess, because his astonishingly racist views are really easy to find on his Facebook account.

Here's a post he made recently calling black culture "evil," adding: "The founding White culture of our forefathers is under attack for what should be obvious reasons." He's also said "White power is the answer", "what we need are some White sanctuary cities" and "White anglo-saxon europeans founded this free nation, and only White people will save it, so White up!"

Schiess also posted that he was happy with the title of "number one terrorist, racist, Nazi, homophobe in America."

We've contacted Schiess for comment, and he's seen our message but has yet to respond.

How John Schiess scores

Kim David Hammer, Republican, running for Arkansas Senate

Hammer is a veteran of Arkansas politics. He's currently an elected member of Arkansas's House of Representatives, and is looking to step up to his state's Senate this November. Hammer, who has held public office since 2010, seems to believe Obama is a Muslim – he shared this photo of the former President with the words "Americans are fed up with all this Muslim crap."

On the subject of Muslims (who he compared to Nazis), he thinks they're all out to get Christians. "Christians had better get busy converting people to Christ because Christians are second on the hit list of the Islamic faith," he wrote in 2014.

He also thinks same-sex marriage is a "disgrace" that would bring "judgement" on America. Writing in 2015, he said: "[It's] a direct attack against the authority of God and a frontal assault against His Word."

And he shared this post in 2015 questioning with the Confederate flag is banned (it's not?) when a Nazi flag and an ISIS flag are both legal to sell. He's seen our message for comment and has yet to respond.

How Kim Hammer scores

And if you want to expose your local politician, message us with the screenshots.

@hshukman