We are watching our system of checks and balances disappear with the stroke of a pen. It’s not alarmist to say that this is a failing democracy that may be one election away from destruction, and it didn’t start with Donald Trump.
Since launching my campaign, I’ve heard a lot of stories about what’s happening in our country from people who work in politics. They’re stories that are hard to believe. Some even keep me up at night, so I can understand why politicians don’t share them with the public.
But I’m not a politician, and I think it’s only right to be transparent about the threats we’re up against.
Forgive me if what I’m about to share with you is a hard pill to swallow, but avoiding hard truths helped get us where we are today.
You know that the Heritage Foundation is behind Project 2025. You also know that The Federalist Society is behind the extremist takeover of our courts.
You probably don’t know that a group called the Council for National Policy (CNP) is intertwined with these and other far-right organizations.
Just months after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, the Council for National Policy formed as a coalition of political strategists, Christian nationalists, oil industry and other corporate leaders, and dark money donors with one shared goal: power.
They have wielded money and religion as a weapon over the GOP for over 40 years, using their influential network of members and allies to alter government through GOP lawmakers and every Republican administration.
During Trump’s presidency, the Council for National Policy became more entrenched in the federal government than ever before, and there wasn’t any sign of slowing down.
Vice President Mike Pence wrote a letter in 2020 promising CNP an even “deeper” relationship with the White House in Trump’s second term.
Based on reporting from the Washington Post, the events unfolding today and the threats in Project 2025 are directly tied to the goals of the Council’s founding members: conservative control of government, preventing equality for women and minorities, and religious influence in politics.
The Christian extremism factor is playing out right now in GOP-controlled states.
That’s because this extremist coalition expanded their control of the Republican Party to state legislators in recent years, under the guise of MAGA and “America First” politicians.
Just last month, a man who proudly calls himself a “Christian Nationalist” was elected as the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in Indiana, just a couple hours west of my district.
Two weeks ago, Louisiana Republicans passed a law requiring every public school classroom to display a poster featuring the Ten Commandments. You know what else most classrooms have? The American flag.
Then there’s Oklahoma, where the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction – a man named Ryan Walters – ordered all school districts to incorporate the Bible in fifth- through 12th-grade classes last week.
Walters has stated that the Heritage Foundation “has been an incredible partner” in deciding policy for Oklahoma’s schools.
Let me be clear: there is NOTHING about these policies or these organizations that helps religion, and I am in no way interested in attacking religion.
I believe we are all entitled to faith, whatever that may look like in our own lives and whatever we may call it. But no one is entitled to force their religion on another person, and anyone wielding religion as a defense for an authoritarian power grab like Project 2025 needs to be called out.
I’ve got to wrap this up, but there are books and documentaries on the Council for National Policy if you want to know more. If you don’t, I wouldn’t blame you.
I didn’t want to know any of this. I don’t want to see it happening to the country I risked my life to serve.
I didn’t intend to become a politician. I just want to be a dad and take care of my family, but my opponent has used OH-12’s House seat to make that harder.
I believe that our leaders have failed us by avoiding hard truths and the extent of government corruption. That’s not the kind of leadership I want for myself or my community, and it’s not the leadership I’m interested in providing for Ohio and our country.
I’m going to bring transparency and basic human decency back to Congress if I win this year, and then I will meet with every person I have to in order to find a solution, ANY SOLUTION, to stop this Christian Nationalist takeover before it’s too late.
Fighting ‘til the end,
Jerrad Christian
Democrat for OH-12
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