Richard Spencer, who has been credited with creating the term “alt-right,” publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats down the ballot in Montana on Friday night.
Spencer, one of 14 organizers ordered to pay millions in a civil trial after organizing the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, told his 93,500 followers on X, formerly Twitter, “I want you all to know that I am voting for Kamala Harris and I hope you will too.”
Given the slightly surprising endorsement, both due to his politics and previous comments about women, Spencer clarified in a phone interview with Newsweek on Saturday morning, “I just want someone who is competent to be in charge so that something can happen, as opposed to demonization of the other side.”
Spencer, who was described by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a “suit-and-tie version of the white supremacists of old, a kind of professional racist in khakis,” added that “there’s a total absence of policy among the GOP. It’s the ‘no’ party, it’s almost nihilistic party,” in contrast to how he views the Democrats as, “more competent,” “able to be reasonable,” and wanting “to govern the whole country.”
Spencer clarified he is not affiliated with any political party.
In the interview with Newsweek on Saturday, he specifically cited the bipartisan border bill that Republicans shot down earlier this year as an example. “If you don’t want things to get better, then you’re sort of evil,” he said.
Spencer announced his endorsement of Harris in an almost 12-minute video posted to X, saying, “This is not some kind of troll or joke; this is a sincere vote.”
In the video, he discussed what voting for a candidate means to him, saying you have to consider “who best offers stability, safety, continuation, and most likely to be the best manager of the American empire.”
He continued: “When I put it that way, the choice is very clear. I think Donald Trump and the MAGA [Make America Great Again] movement bring nothing but stupidity and chaos.”
Newsweek has reached out to Harris’ and Trump’s campaign for comment via email on Saturday.
Richard Spencer, who popularized the term “alt-right,” speaks on October 19, 2017, in Gainesville, Florida. Spencer publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats down the ballot in Montana on Friday night.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Spencer previously praised Trump’s 2016 victory over former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with the battle cry, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!”
When asked by Newsweek why he supported Trump in 2016, Spencer said, “Trump was sounding really politically incorrect, nationalist notes. And there was this notion that everything was going to change,” adding that there was this “kind of beauty in chaos.”
Now, he says “if we fully implement what they [Trump and his allies] are talking about, it’s going to be a catastrophe for everyone.”
He noted that a Trump administration would be “very eager to dismantle” what he describes as the “American empire,” which includes military bases abroad, the dollar system, major commitments to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and more. “I just don’t support that,” he said of the dismantling.
Spencer only endorsed Trump’s first run, and in 2020, he backed then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Biden’s campaign manager, Andrew Bates, rejected Spencer’s endorsement on Twitter.
Reflecting on Biden’s presidency, Spencer told Newsweek, “I don’t think Biden was great, but I think he was a pretty good president,” citing the CHIPS Act and the ideas of “Build Back Better.”
Spencer is the former co-editor of the now-defunct Altright.com and the former president of the National Policy Institute. He has repeatedly promoted white supremacist, racist, and misogynistic ideologies.
His endorsement of a woman candidate for president is in contrast to his 2016 comments about Clinton on Twitter, saying at the time, “Women should never be allowed to make foreign policy. It’s not that they’re ‘weak.’ To the contrary, their vindictiveness knows no bounds.”
In addition, he previously told Newsweek in a 2017 interview, “I’m not terribly excited about voting in general. I think that mass democracy is a bit of a joke, to be honest.” He added, “I don’t necessarily think that that’s a great thing,” regarding women voting in U.S. elections.
When asked about his apparent changing stance and voting for what could be the first woman president of the United States, Spencer told Newsweek, “Women on average are as smart as men, if not smarter than men on average…I have total confidence in Harris and her administration as competent administrators. That’s never really been an issue.”
In his X post on Friday announcing his endorsement of Harris, Spencer wrote, “I’m going to protect women … whether they like it or not!” The post is a play on Trump’s remarks at a Wisconsin rally on Wednesday in which Trump mentioned that his aides had advised him to refrain from using the term “protector” because it was “inappropriate.”
Spencer, who is a resident of Whitefish, Montana, said in the video that he is “going to vote straight Democrats.” The state, which has a Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, and a Republican-controlled legislature, has an R+11 partisan voting index, according to the Cook Political Report. Democratic Senator Jon Tester is running in a contested race for the U.S. Senate seat, with most polls favoring Republican challenger Tim Sheehy.
He told Newsweek, “Tester and Monica Tranel are just real centrists,” adding “they’re not crazy woke liberals or something, they’re just totally reasonable people.” Tranel is running to represent Montana’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Spencer said his top issue is Ukraine and continuing U.S. support in its war against Russia.
Earlier this year, he responded to an attack on Harris by right-wing political commentator Tim Pool who called Harris a “Communazi Despot come to put conservatives in concertation camps.”
Spencer replied to Pool’s X post, writing, “A bit much?”
