Ohio GOP House candidate J.R. Majewski called for secession in livestream following 2020 election

By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN

Ohio Republican congressional candidate J.R. Majewski said in a livestream following the 2020 election that he thought every state won by former President Donald Trump should secede from the United States.

Majewski, who works in the nuclear industry and is an Air Force veteran, is already under scrutiny over his past promotion of the false QAnon conspiracy theory and his attendance at the January 6, 2020 “Stop the Steal” rally which preceded the Capitol riot. Majewski emerged victorious in a crowded Republican primary earlier this month and will face off against long-serving Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in the newly drawn congressional district this November. The race is considered to be competitive and is likely to be a toss up.

“I was actually going to say,” Majewski said in a video on the livestreaming app Periscope. “I didn’t want to be a hype beast, but I’ve had it in my back pocket to say that every state that went red should secede from the United States.

“I don’t think it sounds out there,” he added. “Why should we go to this — the left, they’re f**king psychotic. I mean, it’s not, it is not out there brother. I mean, in my opinion, they’re beyond they’re, they’re — it’s irrational. They’re way of life is just crazy. To me, secession is not out there. It’s all about how you frame the dialogue though. You can’t just, you know, obviously you’re talking to me, different story, but the general population, you know, we have to break ’em in easy.”

Majewski appears to be responding to a commentator on his livestream who asked his thoughts on “literally splitting up and making our own country.”

Former President Donald Trump won in 25 states in the 2020 election against Joe Biden. Biden won 306 electoral college votes to Trump’s 232, as well as the nationwide popular vote. Many in the Republican Party continue to echo Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. But Majewski’s advocacy that “red” states should secede from the union is an outlier even among those who falsely claim vast fraud in the 2020 election.

Majewski did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. The video was taken down shortly after CNN reached out.

Before running for Congress, Majewski was best known as the Trump supporter who painted his front lawn into a 19,000-square-foot Trump 2020 sign.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.