Mesa, AZ – A group of America First supporters, college Republicans and a Christian nationalist pastor were handing out hamburgers and hot dogs to voters in Phoenix on Tuesday, but only if they voted for former President Donald Trump.
The cookout took place about 100 meters from a polling station and was probably illegal.
The effort was organized by the far-right group College Republicans United, in partnership with the Arizona Patriot Party. It started right after polls opened at the Mesa Convention Center. Groypers, as the followers of white nationalist Nick Fuentes are called, helped hand out hot dogs, hamburgers and cold drinks. Commanding the grill was Pastor David MacLellan, a Christian nationalist pastor who is chaplain of the Arizona Patriot Party and subscribes to the extremist ideology of the Black Robe Regiment.
“We’re giving away hot dogs and hamburgers to people who are doing the right thing: voting for Trump,” MacLellan tells WIRED.
Isaiah, a self-identified groyper who did not want to provide his last name, confirmed that the group was only handing out food to Trump voters, but added: “(The food is) specifically for Trump voters, but we give Welcome others if they do. “I want to come and change my mind.”
Providing food to a specific group of people at a polling place violates federal law.
“Not only is it illegal to give only voters for one candidate, but you can’t limit it to just voters. “should be available to everyone in the area, including children and others who are not eligible to vote, to avoid running afoul of federal law against vote buying,” Rick Hasen, law professor, told WIRED. at UCLA. citing the same rules that Elon Musk was accused of failing to fulfill his $1 million ticket.
The Arizona Secretary of State’s office, which sets rules for behavior at polling places, did not respond to a request for comment.
The group College Republican United was created in 2018 by Rick Thomas, who is also a member of the Arizona Patriot Party. Thomas told WIRED he founded the group out of frustration with the Republican student group that existed at Arizona State University.
“We eventually broke away and formed our own organization that was very pro-Trump,” Thomas said. “We are Americans first, we are MAGA.”
While not all College Republican United members are members of Fuentes’ group, there is significant overlap, Isaiah told WIRED.
Thomas described the group as a relatively conventional student group, but online evidence indicates otherwise: the book recommendations page of the College Republican United website features two deeply anti-Semitic works: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and The American Jew by Henry Ford.
Another CRU member, Kevin Decuyper, was recently hired as assistant to far-right former sheriff Joe Arpaio,
“There are reasons why College Republicans United has been denounced by so many Republican organizations,” says Nick Martin, an investigative journalist who closely follows extremist groups in Arizona and who runs the online publication. The informant. “The organization recommends its members read debunked and debunked books full of racist pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Their guest speakers include white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Pizzagate hucksters, fringe political candidates, and, rarely, some actual Republicans.”
