Republican Candidate for Governor Slated to Speak Alongside a Proud Boy

HOW MUCH?

$250 on March 3

WHO GOT IT?

Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Thielman

WHO GAVE IT?

Dan Tooze, a self-identified Proud Boy who is running to be the Republican nominee for Oregon House District 40.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Thielman hasn’t been among the five leading GOP candidates to raise the substantial sums necessary for a blitz of TV ads or blanketing the state in mailings. But he’s received quite a bit of media attention, especially after he defied COVID-19 masking rules as superintendent of the Alsea School District, then resigned.

Tooze represents the extremist edge of the Republican Party and wrote a Nov. 23 op-ed for Pamplin Media about his flag-waving protests outside that media company’s building: “When Proud Boys say, ‘I am a Western chauvinist,’ we are saying, ‘I am a proud and unabashed proponent of Western Civilization.’ That is it. It has nothing to do with race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality or even national origin. Only love of country.”

Thielman is slated to speak at a fundraiser hosted by Tooze in Oregon City, alongside Clackamas County Commissioner Mark Shull and commission candidate Steve Frost, on April 15. (Versions of the flyer say it’s a fundraiser for Tooze, though Thielman, who hasn’t endorsed Tooze or his Republican opponent, says it’s a fundraiser for Republican candidates.)

WHAT DO THE CAMPAIGNS SAY?

Thielman says his campaign has been a grassroots effort: “I have almost 1,700 individual donors; I’ve had no Big Pharma corporate money, no special interest money. I don’t want to end up in the governorship beholden to someone. I welcome an individual who likes my message to donate. I know he appreciated my stance against masking.”

Tooze did not respond to an email and a voicemail requesting comment.