Republican Michigan House candidate John Gibbs made have beaten his primary opponent, who had voted to impeach Trump. Still, his prior actions in the early 2000s will make for many conversations heading into the midterms.
According to CNN, Gibbs started a think tank during his time at Stanford University, the Society for the Critique of Feminism. In this organization, the house candidate reportedly argued against women’s right to vote and pushed the belief that “men were smarter than women because they are more likely to “think logically about broad and abstract ideas to deduce a suitable conclusion without relying upon emotional reasoning.”
The website also claims women don’t have “the characteristics to govern” and blame the 19th amendment for the “uncontrollable size of the government.
“Some argue that in a democratic society, it is hypocritical or unjust for women, who are 50% of the population, not to have the vote,” Gibbs’ website read. “This is obviously not true, since the founding fathers, who understood liberty and democracy better than anyone, did not believe so. In addition, all people under age 18 cannot vote, although they too comprise a significant portion of the population. So we cannot say that women should be able to vote simply because they are a large part of the population.”
The Society for the Critique of Feminism had also gone on to endorse many anti-feminist organizations. Specifically, they highlighted Father’s Manifesto, which started a petition to repeal the 19th amendment. A spokesperson for Gibbs’ campaign Anne Marie Schieber spoke to CNN and immediately tried to do damage control.
“John made the site to provoke the left on campus and to draw attention to the hypocrisy of some modern-day feminists. It was nothing more than a college kid being over the top,” she said in an email. “Of course, John does not believe that women shouldn’t vote or shouldn’t work, and his mother worked for thirty-three years for the Michigan Department of Transportation!”
Gibbs has also been more to make some controversial comments in the past. In 2016, he tweeted Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta took part in a Satanic ritual and also backed up former Rep. Steve King of Iowa’s claims of white nationalism.