Selective Outrage? A GOP Blowup Over a Young Republican's Hateful Mailer
ANALYSIS: A county Republican Party erupts over antisemitic viewpoints, but remains silent over similar anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric from its own.
Where does the Republican Party draw the line when it comes to hating people based on the color of their skin or their religion?
There is perhaps no better example of that question than a blowup this week inside Tennessee’s Maury County Republican Party over an antisemitic mailer sent out by a Young Republican activist.
Maury County, located about 45 minutes south of Nashville, is MAGA country—although the county seat of Columbia has a more center-left alignment. Five years ago, Confederate sympathizers relocated the remains of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the KKK, to an antebellum plantation there.
Hate Comes to Main Street has been primarily focused on how hate and political extremism have infected America’s communities—and this episode, in my mind, provides an excellent example worthy of deeper consideration.
The more that I have processed the denunciations of someone deemed to be too hateful to be tolerated, it has become clear that the picture is more complicated than I was fully able to capture in this story for Nashville’s NewsChannel 5.
Please take a look, then let’s talk about it.
Let’s break it down
First of all, Austin Lee is pretty much a nobody.
As of this writing, the Maury County Young Republican president has 676 followers on X and a mere five followers on Rumble.
From his posts and his X bio description—”Save White America”—Lee seems to have a clear plan for how he thinks he can get attention in today’s GOP.
He distributed the mailer to young Republican voters, making an appeal for support that included a reference to the antisemitic “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. That theory claims Jews are engineering the immigration of people of color as part of a secert plot to replace White people.
“I put out the following mailer to thousands of conservatives in my area. It is time for the Republican Party to face the reality of race,” Lee said on X.
His one mistake may have been in being too blunt about his views of Jews.
As a result, when the mailer came up at the monthly meeting of the Maury County GOP, state Representative Scott Cepicky—a member of the conservative Church of Christ that is popular in the region—stunned some people with a revelation about his family history.
“I’m a Jew,” Cepicky told the GOP audience. “I’m an Ashkenazi Jew. My family left Israel, moved to Central Europe. In the 30s, you know what happened in Central Europe with Jews. My family immigrated to the United States.”
Noting that his own father fought in World War II, the Republican lawmaker invoked the horrors of the Nazis and the Holocaust.
“You gotta take a stand against this stuff,” Cepicky continued. “This is an idea that gains traction and destroys. This doesn't unite us.”
Referring to the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution, Cepicky noted that it references “we, the people.” He continued, ‘It doesn't say ‘we, the White people,’ or ‘we, the Christians,’ or ‘we, the Jews.’ It says ‘we, the people.’"
A woman in the audience agreed.
“ I am not a Jew, but I am with you. This is unacceptable.”
Here’s where it gets complicated
Except for his blatant disparagement of Jewish people, it is not clear that Austin Lee’s views are so different from some MAGA leaders, including the congressman who lives in Maury County and represents them in Washington.
Here is the reverse side of Lee’s mailer:
“Stop the Great Replacement”?
Maury County’s MAGA Congressman Andy Ogles insists “replacement of American culture is not a theory.”
“Expel the invader”?
Ogles is explicit: “New York City has been occupied by muslim [sic] invaders. DEPORTATIONS NOW.”
“Ban Islam”?
Andy Ogles says, “America and Islam are incompatible. Time for a Muslim ban” and “DEPORT THEM ALL!”
And what about Representative Cepicky’s insistence that the Constitution is not exclusively for “we, the Christians”?
His own congressman has adopted images from the Crusades and declared that “America cannot survive if the people are not committed, Biblical Christians.”
Neither Scott Cepicky nor the Maury County Republican Party have ever denounced Ogles’ rhetoric about Muslims or immigrants.
‘You gotta take a stand against this stuff’
Maury County Republican Chair Jason Gilliam posted a statement on Facebook from the Tennessee Young Republican Federation and declared, '“The Maury County Republican Party stands with the Tennessee Young Republicans.”
“We do not condone the hate conveyed in the mailer that was sent out to young men in our community,” Gilliam said. “The MCGOP will support any effort assuring that these people are held accountable for such disgusting behavior.”
But here’s the problem: the Tennessee Young Republican Federation does not actually denounce the language in Austin Lee’s mailer. It only states that the mailer was not approved at the state level.
“The TYRF did not, and does not, authorize, endorse, or support the recent communications published by the Maury County Young Republicans,” the statement declared, promising an “immediate review.”
Neither Scott Cepicky nor anyone else of prominence within the Tennessee GOP has called out the Young Republicans for their lackluster response.
Crickets about another GOP controversy
The Maury County blowup came the same day that I revealed that a prominent figure in a Tennessee GOP gubernatorial candidate’s social media videos has a long history of hateful views.
Dane Chisholm calls Jews “a malevolent force throughout history,” praises Adolf Hitler as “a great man,” and urges Black Americans to “return to Africa.”
But the candidate, Christian nationalist Monty Fritts, has ignored the entire controversy—and no Tennessee Republican has called him out on it.
Has such a controversy now become “no big deal” within the Republican Party?
These are questions that the GOP now faces.