Welcome to the 734th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing the former candidate to be the U.S. House Representative from Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, Adam Hasner. Hasner was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2002 through 2010, hitting term limits as the Tea Party came to power. He served in that body along side future Senator Marco Rubio, and by 2007, was the Majority Leader serving in that body, and was frequently criticized for his partisan extremism by colleagues. At one point, video even emerged of Hasner boasting that he was “the most partisan Republican in Tallahassee”.
The least offensive thing about Adam Hasner might be that he’s just a hypocrite, as he campaigned for Congress against politicians who “raise their pay” and “pad their pensions”, and meanwhile, he had a history of doing exactly that as a state legislator. But really, it’s the rolling with hate groups that bothers us more.
During Hasner’s first two years out of office in 2011 and 2012, and around the time he started trying to build momentum for his Congressional run, he suddenly took a huge turn for the Islamophobic. And not limited to the ways you might expect. While some Republicans were content to foment fears of the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating the Democratic Party like bigoted twits, Hasner went “next-level” in his fearmongering. During a speech before the Republican Liberty Caucus of East Central Florida where he said that “there has also been an infiltration of the conservative movement by stealth jihadists in this country.” Yes, Adam Hasner started to intimate that the GOP had been infiltrated by Muslim radicals as proof that they weren’t conservative enough. You are allowed to snicker at that thought. He also bizarrely imagined that President Obama had aligned himself against Occupy Wall Street and that the group also had in its ranks “ranting anti-Semites who want to destroy Israel.“
Before long, Hasner had opted to appear in public with hate group leaders like Pamela Geller, the leader of the anti-Muslim hate group ACT!, legendary Islamophobe Frank Gaffney, as well as Dutch white nationalist Geert Wilders. While raving about Sharia Law all the time was one thing, his opinions that Jews in Israel had “superior claims” to the land than Palestinian Arabs was a bit more extreme of an opinion than one would hope for. Maybe when he went so far as to boycott an imam’s prayers in the Florida State Legislature, it should have become pretty clear that he was an outright bigot.
Adam Hasner ended up losing in 2012 to Lois Frankel, getting 45% of the vote. Since, he has still floated behind the scenes in Florida politics, and he was a delegate at the 2016 Republican National Convention. We’ll see if he ever attempts a full comeback to prominence, but we’re hoping not.
One Year Ago, February 25th, 2018: Jon Stanard (UT)
Two Years Ago, February 25th, 2017: Tom Price (GA)
Three Years Ago. February 25th, 2016: Rick Berg (ND)
Four Years Ago, February 25th, 2015: Andy Tobin (AZ)