Another Disturbing Peek Into the Minds of Young Republicans
Hate Comes to Main Street can now link a racist, antisemitic, misogynistic, Christian nationalist X account to another group of Young Republicans out of East Tennessee.
First, there was the leak of the Telegram chats of national Young Republican figures who “referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers.”
One person famously declared, “I love Hitler.”
More recently, there was a blowup inside Tennessee’s Maury County Republican Party over what was viewed as an antisemitic mailer sent out by a 32-year-old man as part of his effort to build up a local Young Republicans chapter.
Now, Hate Comes to Main Street can link a racist, antisemitic, misogynistic, Christian nationalist X account to another group of Young Republicans—in this case, far-right men associated with a Knox County chapter in East Tennessee.
That X account—calling itself the Tennessee Heritage Association—routinely pushes themes that once would have been more commonplace at cross-burning Ku Klux Klan rallies than in mainstream GOP politics.
Among the examples:
The Tennessee Heritage Association amplifies racist notions of an “America for Ethnic Americans”—in other words, White people— and supports far-right calls for “remigration” of non-white “invaders” from American soil, declaring: “We do not give a shit about their human rights.”
It demands imposition of “Jim Crow 2.0” and envisions a day when Black people will no longer be “living on our lands.” It mocks a White Supreme Court justice for adopting Black children and calls a highly educated African-American justice “retarded.” And it warns, “We are ending all this nonsense and making America American again.”
The Tennessee Heritage Association’s X account also argues that “when the rightwing and leftwing jews [sic] sing in unison, their target is always White people.” Referring to a video showing a Jewish politician speaking at a Black church, it says: “Nobody in this video should be in my homeland.”
And it calls for overthrowing the U.S. Constitution if necessary to achieve its idea of America. In advance of the Supreme Court’s ruling on birthright citizenship, it said, “It’s likely time to move on from this form of government because it is incapable of preserving our heritage….”
And if you think they are a bunch of racists, the Tennessee Heritage Association does not care.
“Childish and fake terms like ‘racist’ don’t matter to Gen Z,” the X account claimed.
Yet, rather than being relegated to the extreme, the Tennessee Heritage Association has co-sponsored an event with MAGA Congressman Andy Ogles and produced videos with Christian nationalist candidate for governor Monty Fritts.
The mysterious group has also signed on as one of the backers of the so-called Mass Deportation Coalition, which includes the influential Heritage Foundation, as well as the politically connected Center for Baptist Leadership.
The latter group is engaged in a campaign to try to push the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, farther to the right.
Who is the Tennessee Heritage Association?
Its website describes the Tennessee Heritage Association as “a single-issue advocacy group determined to end and reverse mass migration.”
The group first popped up on my radar when it co-sponsored an event in Knoxville on January 2026, that was titled “Building a Legacy: The Future of Gen Z in U.S. Politics.” The event’s other sponsors included the Young Republicans of Knox County, and it was promoted by the Knox County Republican Party.
A 90-minute video from that event was posted on YouTube, but it suddenly disappeared after I grabbed images of two men who appeared to be the group’s leaders and made a request on X for help in identifying them.
One of the event’s speakers, a balding man who identified himself as “Austin,” said he was treasurer of the Young Republicans of Knox County and co-founder of Tennessee Heritage Association.
“We started this organization last year with the purpose of bringing an authentic right-wing vision in Knox County and to preserve our way of life for Heritage America,” Austin said. “Our goal here is to build this into a right-wing cultural center, something that the next generation can shape and grow.”
Later, a bearded man, who was not identified by name, welcomed the audience—on behalf of the Tennessee Heritage Association—to the gathering that he said represented “delegations from at least six or seven other states.”
“We, the right-wing American youth, expect support for remigration as the absolute baseline political stance on the Right to earn and maintain our support,” the mysterious Tennessee Heritage Association figure insisted.
Remigration, according to extremism watchdogs, is a term originally popularized by European neo-Nazis as a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.
In April, the Tennessee Heritage Association was involved in a second event, this one in the Nashville area, that featured Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles and several prominent Christian nationalist figures from the Southeast.
In preparation for this post, because I have been blocked by the X account, I unsuccessfully attempted to contact the group’s leaders through a contact form on their website. I have also attempted, again without success, to reach out to the individuals whom I believe to be the men shown in the video from the event.
It is not known who operates the @HeritageTN X account, but this post will explore the group’s apparent ideology through its own words on social media.
Tennessee Heritage Association: On race
On June 27, the person or persons operating the Tennessee Heritage Association’s X account reposted an item from an anonymous Christian nationalist who insisted “nobody posting Confederate flags wants slavery back.”
Its real problem, the item continued, was with Black people themselves.
“Not only do we not want those folks living on our lands, but we don’t even want them on our continent,” the post continued. “The South is the last bastion of unabashed White identity….”
In another case, the Tennessee Heritage Association responded to a news report about the racial makeup of students in America’s public schools.
“White students should be 100% of the students in American schools,” the X account argued.
“I don’t want my kids replaced in our own country, our one and only homeland. The politician who campaigns on ending White replacement in this country will rule for life.”
Recently, the group lambasted the University of Tennessee Athletic Department for celebrating Juneteenth.
“Trump won, we don’t have to do this anymore,” it said, adding that UT Sports should “stop selling your overwhelmingly White alumni and fanbase down the river to appease angry urban teens.”
Later, replying to a critic, the account added, “We The Honks don’t care man, we’re ending all this nonsense and making America American again.”
In April, Tennessee Heritage Association also shared a post attacking Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett for her adoption of “foreign black children.”
Those children were adopted from Haiti.
Another post insulted Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s intelligence.
Referencing the civil rights reforms that ended racial segregation, the group described those laws as “letting the blacks in the South destroy all our cities.”
It then called for “Jim Crow 2.0,” which it defined as “no longer letting the blacks in the South destroy all our cities.”
Other posts have called for “restoring American freedom of association”—in other words, the right to discriminate— and warned of a “resurgent young Right who don’t care at all about the label of Jim Crow.”
“When we win,” the group said elsewhere, “MLK Day will be erased from history.”
And it hinted at the possible return of lynchings in America.
Unfortunately, there is much more.
Tennessee Heritage Association: On Jews
Whoever operates the Tennessee Heritage Association account on X appears to have also bought into the antisemitic “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that claims Jews are waging a war to replace White people.
“When the rightwing and leftwing jews [sic] sing in unison, their target is always White people,” the account tweeted. That, it added, is “not a tolerable position for anyone on the young Right and incredibly short-sighted….”
Tennessee Heritage Association also shared a post by an account tied to antisemitic, Christian nationalist Pastor Joel Webbon in which he argued that Jews “killed the Prophets” and “the Lord Jesus Christ.”
It references a Bible verse often twisted by antisemites to say that the Apostle Paul—a Jew himself—called Jews “the enemies of all mankind.”
“Why do we partner with them?” it asked.
Then, there was a June 22 post that referenced U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff, which it felt the need to describe as “a jew,” speaking to a Black church.
“Nobody in this video should be in my homeland,” the Tennessee Heritage Association declared.
And the group has criticized the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s efforts to combat antisemitism.
“The jews [sic] behind the IHRA want to criminalize the Easter story, to criminalize the Christian faith, and to further eradicate the remains of Christendom,” another tweet claimed.
Tennessee Heritage Association: On other non-whites
Looking at the Tennessee Heritage Association account on X, it is also clear that it has no love for people of foreign ancestry, especially Indian Americans.
“Arjun, you’re getting deported,” it told a Canadian-born man of Indian ancestry. The post added, “Christ is King.”
Tennessee Heritage Association has retweeted multiple far-right accounts mocking GOP activist Vivek Ramaswamy, and it has hurled its own attacks against the U.S.-born man of Indian ancestry.
“You can travel to America. You can live in America. You can have American citizenship. But you, Vivek, will never be an American,” it said.
Similarly, the account has repeatedly expressed disdain for Harmeet Dhillon, the India-born assistant attorney general in the Trump administration, calling her “a rootless anti-White foreigner.” Dhillon became a U.S. citizen as a child.
At one point, Dhillon was mentioned as a possible candidate for attorney general.
“You want a twice-divorced, demon-worshipping Indian woman to be the AG?” the Tennessee Heritage Association account asked. “Not an actual American, not Christian, not even male—abysmal choice on all counts.”
Tennessee Heritage Association: Other views
Responding to a photo of the four women on the U.S. Supreme Court, Tennessee Heritage Association posted: “Stop appointing women to do men’s jobs.”
It has also argued that sexual harassment by men is a “fantastic argument *against* women in the workforce.”
And it has expressed disdain for democratic norms, suggesting that elected officials should not worry about whether their actions are legal.
“I don’t care, and neither do your voters bubba,” one post said. “Do the thing, reward voters, rule for life.”
Recently, it argued for national control over big cities like Chicago, Seattle, and Portland, saying: “the federal government ought to seize control of all blue city cartels, from the alderman up to the Governor, because their rule is illegitimate.”
And anticipating that the U.S. Supreme Court might overrule President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, the X account argued that “the Constitution might as well not exist at this point.”
“If this farce is where the SC lands, it’s likely time to move on from this form of government because it is incapable of preserving our heritage and securing our future,” the post continued. “Our children matter more than the Constitution.”
Defending Hitler jokes
One of the Tennessee Heritage Association’s co-sponsors at both the Knoxville and Nashville events, was another mysterious, Christian nationalist group, the Institute for Christian Statecraft. The group’s founder, Aaron T. Miller from Columbia, Tennessee, was the keynote speaker at the Knoxville event.
Miller, whose X account with its 160 followers describes him as a “social media influencer,” also serves as a Maury County commissioner.
Addressing the controversy of the national Young Republicans caught making jokes about Hitler—or, as Miller called him, “the Austrian painter”—the speaker insisted the GOP was being too hard on the party’s right-wing young men.
Many of those caught up in the national Young Republicans scandal lost their political jobs, which Miller said showed a lack of loyalty.
Watch an excerpt from Miller’s talk below:
“And what does that tell the next crop of young leaders that are gonna come up?” he asked. “Nope, you can’t tell edgy jokes. Nope, you gotta walk on eggshells. You gotta be careful. You don’t want to offend anybody.”
He continued, “Is that the kind of political movement that we want for the future, is that the future that we want for our country? No, absolutely not.”
Miller, by the way, has blocked me on X and not responded to my repeated attempts to reach him.
What do you think?
Please leave your comments below, and let’s discuss.
This is so frightening.