Below is the column I submitted a week ago to the Grand Haven Tribune for my October column. To date, they have not yet printed it—however, with absentee ballots being turned in, I'm publishing it on my own platform so that those voting in our local election (or any local election) can be aware of the dangers posed by those extremists across the country trying to infiltrate local government. Don't let what happened to Ottawa County government happen to you, your county, or your school board.
Tommy VanHill had previously run as an unabashed Ottawa Impact candidate and lost and is on the ballot once more as an official Ottawa Impact candidate. That lawsuit was dismissed. Joshua T. Spurr and David Olthof have been endorsed by the chair of the Ottawa Impact-run County Republican party, so one assume they also fall in line with the other candidates. And one doesn’t have to dig very hard to see that is indeed the case. Olthof’s social media shows regular posts from the far-right group Restoring Ottawa, which has been behind repeated attacks on our public school system. Spurr’s socia media includes a video from May of 2023 that has him shooting at Bud Light bottles, likely a part of the far-right protest of that business for their brief promotion with transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney.
Though not endorsed by the Ottawa County GOP chair, two other candidates gave me grave concern. Helen Brinkman made news in 2023 as an attorney in Kent County that sought to ban books in school libraries that it deemed unsuitable. One only needs to read the news articles to see the ways that her efforts are part of the larger attacks on the LGBTQIA+ population. Steve Skodack has repeatedly denied his connections to Ottawa Impact and yet his views continually align with those of the movement, especially homophobic and transphobic criticisms of the Grand Haven Pride Festival. He lost his bid to get on the Grand Haven City Council and apparently now thinks that the school board is an easier way to get power. However, he has no campaign website and his candidacy page on Facebook still names him as a city council candidate.
I was reminded by these candidates that though Ottawa Impact did indeed lose ground in the recent primary election, that group and those who support their far-right views are far from done with Ottawa County… and that includes Grand Haven.
For those who want to ensure they don’t accidentally vote for Christian nationalists and far-right extremists in the election, you can go to groups like Organize Ottawa who have vetted all candidates and is working to keep extremist control out of our schools and government. You can access their information at https://organizeottawa.com.
This is perhaps also a helpful time to remind everyone that the waste, corruption, and vengeful governing tactics of Ottawa Impact were not an aberration or something that only happened in our neck of the woods. Ottawa Impact is only one manifestation of a national movement by Christian nationalists seeking to seize local control of counties and school boards.
Much of this movement can be traced to Mike Flynn, who served as Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor for a whopping twenty-two days until he resigned after it was revealed that he had lied about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador. He pled guilty to a felony count of making false statement to the FBI. Before he was sentenced he was pardoned by Donald Trump.
During the Great Lie, as Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Flynn encouraged the president to silence the press, suspend the constitution, and hold a new election run by the military. When he was deposed about the insurrection on January 6, Mike Flynn repeatedly pleaded the fifth.
After the failure of the insurrection, though, Flynn took to calling for a different approach to seizing control of government. Claiming danger from everything from Critical Race Theory to LGBTQIA+ rights, Flynn began urging Christians around the country to take over their school boards and county commissions in order to stop the “woke” infiltration of these bodies.
As the Associated Press has reported, “Flynn’s movement envisions Christianity as the basis of American life and institutions; where the right to bear arms is paramount; where abortion is illegal; where concepts such as systemic racism and gay or transgender rights have no place in the schools; and where people who disagree are called ‘Marxists,’ or perverts, and are excluded from American civic life.” Sound familiar?
Make no mistake, Mike Flynn and those who share his extreme, hateful, and undemocratic views will not rest in their attempt to take over local boards and governments. As Ottawa Impact’s brand continues its downward spiral into toxicity, it will become harder to identify candidates who a part of this attempted far-right takeover of our community. I’m grateful groups like Organize Ottawa are helping the average voter out.
Because, conservative or liberal, independent or progressive, there are lots of followers of Jesus out there who do not believe in the hateful rhetoric against queer people, who believe families and households of all shapes and beliefs should have equal access and rights in schools and the broader community, and who are more interested in showing love than banning books and using terms like “Marxist” so that you don’t have to engage in actual conversation with others. It is those followers of Jesus that must continue to stand against these far-right misrepresentations of his life and teachings.
After all, protecting the marginalized from religious extremism, that’s the sort of thing Jesus actually did do.
The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com.
