Nathan Larson (politician)

Nathan D. Larson (born September 19, 1980)[1] is an American perennial candidate for public office in the U.S. state of Virginia. He served 14 months in prison for the felony of threatening President George W. Bush's life. He has advocated greatly curtailing women's rights and decriminalizing child sexual abuse and incest, and is a white supremacist.[2][3][4][5]

Nathan Larson in a 2008 photo

Political career

An accountant, Larson has a degree from George Mason University,[6] where he was a cannabis reform activist;[7] he was then a member of the Libertarian Party.[8]

In November 2008, Larson ran for Congress in the 1st congressional district of Virginia, as an anarcho-capitalist.[2] He received less than 2% of the vote.[9]

In 2009, he pleaded guilty to sending a letter in December 2008 to the United States Secret Service threatening to kill the President (the President at the time was Bush, the President-elect was Obama), and was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment and three years' supervised release; he served 14 months.[2][10][11] In March 2017 he described the letter as "an act of civil disobedience".[11]

As a convicted felon, Larson was barred from seeking state office in Virginia, until Governor Terry McAuliffe restored voting and candidacy rights to thousands of felons in 2016.[2][11][4] The following year he stood as an independent candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 31st district,[11][12][13] again receiving less than 2% of the vote.[2] His candidacy was discussed in the 2017 campaign for the state governorship, with the Republican nominee, Ed Gillespie, using it to criticize McAuliffe's action.[3] Larson was expelled from the Virginia branch of the Libertarian Party early that year.[13][14]

In 2018, Larson ran as a "quasi-neoreactionary libertarian" for election to Congress from the 10th congressional district of Virginia,[2][15] before withdrawing in August.[16]

Electoral history
DateElectionCandidatePartyVotes%
Virginia's 1st congressional district
Nov 4, 2008[9] General Robert J. Wittman Republican 203,839 56.58
Bill S. Day, Jr Democratic 150,435 41.75
Nathan D. Larson Libertarian 5,265 1.46
Write-ins 756 0.21
Virginia House of Delegates, 31st district
Nov 7, 2017[17] General L. Scott Lingamfelter Republican 12,658 44.19
Elizabeth Guzmán Democratic 15,466 53.99
Nathan D. Larson Independent 481 1.68
Write-ins 39 0.14
Virginia's 10th congressional district
Nov 6, 2018[18] General Barbara Comstock Republican
Jennifer Wexton Democratic
Nathan D. Larson Independent withdrew
Write-ins

Political views

In his 2008 candidacy for Congress, as an anarcho-capitalist, Larson advocated doing away with government at all levels, saying: "All government functions could be better performed by the private sector".[19] Endorsed by the Libertarian Party of Virginia, he stated in its newsletter that the primary aim of his candidacy was introducing libertarian ideas; he focused on transportation, proposing that the US highway and rail systems be auctioned off to private owners who would compete to offer toll-based services,[20] and also that private property rights be extended to Chesapeake Bay.[21] In 2017, as a self-described "red pill Libertarian", his platform for election to the Virginia House included legalizing child pornography[4] and polygyny, eliminating state funding for girls' and women's education, and repealing the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the vote.[11]

Larson's 2018 online political manifesto, which has been taken down, advocates "benevolent white supremacy" and names Adolf Hitler as a "white supremacist hero".[2] It calls for free trade, "putting an end to U.S. involvement in foreign wars arising from our country's alliance with Israel", drug legalization,[3] "suicide rights",[5] protection of gun ownership rights, legalization of child pornography and incest, and repeal of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act.[2] Regarding women he states: "We need to switch to a system that classifies women as property, initially of their fathers and later of their husbands";[2] he has blamed school shootings on feminism, saying: "Guns don't kill people — feminists do."[3] After withdrawing his candidacy in August 2018, he offered his endorsement to Democrat Jennifer Wexton, giving as one of his reasons that the Republican incumbent, Barbara Comstock, "continually takes the side of career women".[16] On white supremacy, he says that whites are superior to other races because of "our cultural creativeness, our willingness to invest in the long term rather than living for today, and our conscientious desire to do the right thing even if it requires heroic self-sacrifice for the good of society",[3] and must resist Jews' attempts to "attain complete supremacy" in the U.S., which would lead to their "destroy[ing] what made this country worth living in".[13]

Larson began editing Wikipedia under his real name in 2005, contributing to articles, policy debates and to the software that Wikipedia runs. Identifying as an inclusionist, he endorsed using Wikipedia in an attempt to make taboo or illegal topics, including child sexual abuse, culturally acceptable. He opposed Wikipedia's child protection policy, and began using a different Wikipedia account to endorse his worldview, which also aligned with his political beliefs, such as decriminalizing child sexual abuse. He was indefinitely blocked and banned from the site in 2008. His offline advocacy and activities, and his continual use of sock accounts (which are also routinely blocked) to edit Wikipedia, eventually led to him being banned from all Wikimedia platforms.[22]

Larson has also edited websites based on Wikipedia's technology but that are not officially endorsed by the Wikimedia foundation.[22] He created Internet chat rooms for self-identified "incels" (involuntarily celibate men) and for pedophiles, suiped.org and incelocalypse.today, and wrote posts on the sites endorsing child rape and describing himself as a "hebephilic rapist".[2] Both sites were removed by the hosting company in late May 2018 after a complaint by the website Babe.net.[2][3][23] He told The Huffington Post in response to a question about whether he is actually a pedophile or merely writes about it online, "It's a mix of both ... When people go over the top there’s a grain of truth to what they say."[6][2] He described the term as "vague" and described men being attracted to underage girls as "normal".[2]

In August 2010, Larson wrote to the federal prosecutor describing the mental health treatment he had received after his conviction as "a complete waste of taxpayer money" since he did not have a mental illness, and announced that he would violate the terms of his release from prison: "If you happen to hear the distinctive sound of gunfire of a Solothurn S-18/100 20 mm Anti-Tank Cannon emanating from my backyard, as cardboard cutouts of statist federal politicians, federal judges, federal prosecutors, and federal agents become riddled with large, ragged bullet holes, please know, that there is nothing amiss; it is just me engaging in target practice".[6]

Private life

Larson is from Charlottesville[3] and lives in Catlett, Virginia,[2] as of June 2018 with his parents.[15] He admitted to raping his ex-spouse,[6][2] who was transgender and committed suicide after the birth of their daughter.[24] In November 2015, a jury in Colorado denied him custody of the girl, and he announced the following month that he would seek legal termination of his parental rights.[25] He has remarried.[2]

References
  1. "Nathan Larson's Biography". Vote Smart. Archived from the original on 2018-06-07.
  2. Jesselyn Cook; Andy Campbell (June 5, 2018) [May 31, 2018]. "Congressional Candidate In Virginia Admits He's A Pedophile". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 2018-06-07.
  3. William Cummings (June 2, 2018) [June 1, 2018]. "Nathan Larson is a pedophile and a white supremacist. And he's running for Congress". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2018-06-04.
  4. Jill Palermo (February 28, 2017). "Update: Delegate candidate convicted in 2009 of threatening to kill the president". Fauquier Times-Democrat. Archived from the original on March 17, 2018.
  5. Andrew Buncombe (June 2, 2018). "Self-described white supremacist and paedophile running for US congress from his parents' home". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2018-06-04.
  6. "Virginia congressional candidate Nathan Larson admits he's a pedophile". New York Daily News. June 1, 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-06-03. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  7. Michael Victorian (December 19, 2002). "GMU student leader fights to reduce marijuana possession penalties". District Chronicles. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  8. "GMU Student Senator Raises Controversy over Marijuana Bill". Libertarian Party of Virginia. November 26, 2002. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
  9. "2008 U.S. House General Election: District 1". Virginia Department of Elections. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12.
  10. "Boulder man sentenced in presidential threat". Denver Post. October 9, 2009. Archived from the original on 2018-06-07.
  11. Antonio Olivo (March 8, 2017). "He threatened to kill the president. Now he is seeking public office". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2018-06-05.
  12. "Independent Nathan Larson seeks 31st District seat". Fauquier Now. November 6, 2017. Archived from the original on 2018-07-21.
  13. Emily Leayman (June 11, 2018). "Pedophile And Hitler Fan Running For Congress Makes Ballot". McLean Patch. Archived from the original on 2018-06-13. Retrieved 2018-06-13.
  14. "Statement Regarding Nathan Larson: Libertarian Party of Virginia Censures Potential Candidate" (press release). Libertarian Party of Virginia. February 28, 2017. Archived from the original on 2018-06-13.
  15. Eli Rosenberg (June 3, 2018). "He's pro-incest, pedophilia, and rape. He's also running for Congress from his parents' house". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2018-06-06.
  16. Jill Palermo (August 14, 2018). "UPDATED: Nathan Larson backs Wexton after dropping his controversial bid for Congress, Wexton declines his endorsement". Fauquier Times-Democrat. Archived from the original on October 9, 2018.
  17. "2017 November General: Official Results". Virginia Department of Elections. December 8, 2017. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12.
  18. "Certified Candidates in Ballot Order for November 6, 2018 General Election" (PDF). Virginia Department of Elections. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 21, 2018.
  19. Don Del Rosso (September 3, 2008). "Libertarian Larson would dissolve government". Fauquier Times-Democrat. Archived from the original on November 21, 2008.
  20. "Larson: Bringing Message to 1st" (PDF). Virginia Liberty. Libertarian Party of Virginia. May–June 2008. pp. 1, 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-02-12.
  21. "Voters Guide: Three Looking to Take Virginia's 1st District Seat in Congress". News Channel 8. October 9, 2008. Archived from the original on November 8, 2008.
  22. Benjakob, Omer (June 14, 2018). "This Hitler-loving Proud Pedophile Was Too Much of a Troll for Wikipedia, but Not for a Congressional Run". Haaretz. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  23. Harry Shukman (May 30, 2018). "How we took down a social network for pedophiles: It was called Incelocalypse". Babe.net. Archived from the original on 2018-06-07.
  24. J. Adrian Stanley (November 11, 2015). "Nathan Larson admits he has "sexual feelings" for children, seeks custody of daughter". Colorado Springs Independent. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12.
  25. J. Adrian Stanley (December 16, 2015). "Nathan Larson now says he won't seek custody of baby". Colorado Springs Independent. Archived from the original on 2018-06-07.


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