#constitution party

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

Viewers in media markets across the U.S. were confronted with an ad targeting LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights during the World Series this week that was so vile that stations aired a disclaimer before it. The ad is sparking backlash for its inflammatory language and graphic content. Funded by Constitution Party presidential candidate Randall Terry, the ad aired on local Fox affiliates like Kansas City’s WDAF and triggered an on-air content warning from stations obligated to broadcast it under federal rules. Some ABC affiliates have also run the ad with a disclaimer. In the ad, a speaker identifying as a Black pastor accuses Democrats of exploiting Black voters and promoting policies harmful to children, LGBTQ+ rights, and families. The speaker claims, “They have drag queens reading filth to our children, grooming them for sexual exploitation, mutilating their genitals, pushing same-sex marriage, killing our babies by the millions, [and] seducing us to destroy our families for a welfare check,” before concluding, “Don’t vote for Kamala [Harris] or any Democrat.” The ad includes graphic photos of disfigured fetuses.

[...] Terry, a longtime figure in anti-abortion activism, has a history of militant tactics that have raised concerns among civil rights groups. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Terry’s organization, Operation Rescue, was at the center of violent and disruptive tactics during the 1980s and 1990s. Operation Rescue organized aggressive blockades and protests at abortion clinics, resulting in numerous arrests and contributing to an environment that encouraged violence. The SPLC noted that Terry’s rhetoric and actions helped galvanize a faction within the anti-abortion movement that adopted increasingly aggressive and violent tactics, with clinic blockades and harassment evolving into acts of arson and murder. The SPLC reports that Terry’s influence played a significant role in the movement’s most extremist, dangerous phase, which placed healthcare providers and patients at risk. Recent data shows voters increasingly reject “mean-spirited” and divisive anti-trans ads. According to a Data for Progress survey, 54 percent of likely voters believe anti-trans ads have gone “out of hand,” and 74 percent say transgender people deserve dignity and respect. Voters in the poll expressed that their primary concerns remain focused on economic and health issues, not divisive cultural attacks.

TV networks such as Fox were forced to air an ad from Constitution Party Presidential candidate Randall Terry, and due to the ad featuring graphic content that had vile anti-LGBTQ+, anti-trans, and anti-abortion themes, the networks put a disclaimer.

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From the April 27, 2024 article:

Randall Terry won the Constitution Party’s presidential nomination.

...

The Constitution Party is on the ballot in twelve states and is petitioning, or about to petition, in additional states.

Alanna Vagianos at HuffPost:

A far-right anti-abortion extremist will be on the presidential ballot in November in at least 12 states. The Constitution Party chose Randall Terry as its 2024 presidential nominee, according to Ballot Access News and Politico. Terry is an extreme anti-abortion advocate who founded Operation Rescue, an anti-choice group notorious for targeting and harassing abortion clinics across the U.S. The party also nominated Stephen Broden, a Texas pastor, as its vice presidential nominee. “We are running for President in the effort to make child killing by abortion the number one voter issue in America,” Terry’s website states. “We will show the horror of aborted children to the American people, and call on Christians to REPENT for having voted for Joe Biden.”

Terry ran as a Republican for a seat in the Florida state Senate in 2006 and for Congress in New York in 1998; he lost in a primary both times. In 2012, he ran in the Democratic Party presidential primaries, where he was known for his graphic advertisements featuring pictures of aborted fetuses in an attempt to discredit then-President Barack Obama. His advertisements are back for his 2024 campaign and are featured prominently on his website. All of the ads include shock images of allegedly aborted fetuses, criticize “stupid celebrities” who support abortion rights, and call on the nation to repent for the sins of pro-abortion rights Democrats. Terry clarified in a video he posted to X, formerly Twitter, earlier this month that he’s seeking the nomination not because he believes he will win, but so that he “can run television ads that show aborted babies.”

This is troubling news for both of these parties given what’s around the corner.

For the CPNC and the national party in general, the looming threat of Donald Trump launching a splinter neofascist party in order to punish insufficiently loyal Republicans and Never Trumpers will greatly affect its efforts to get back on the NC ballot. Blankenship didn’t receive enough votes to even garner .1 percent.

As far as the Green Party goes, the infighting over Howie Hawkins essentially pulling a Hillary may lead to some members to defect to the People’s Party. The Greens don’t have any elected officials here in North Carolina and didn’t run any federal, state or local candidates down the ballot (whereas the CP has a county commissioner in the eastern part of the state).