Memo Published October 5, 2026 · 16 minute read
Criminals, Cranks, and Creeps: How Democrats Should Describe Today’s GOP
Third Way
Donald Trump has remade his party in his own malign image, and while voters are largely familiar with Trump’s personal corruption, most are not aware of how deep the rot has gone—the amorality of some of the Republicans in or seeking high office is astounding. In this memo, we offer a sample of the worst offenders. We divide them into three broad categories: Criminals—those who have engaged in violence and/or self-dealing; Cranks—overt bigots and far-right radicals; and Creeps—sexual miscreants, weirdos, and liars. (To be sure, many could fit into more than one category. And while all of them have embraced the Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen, that is now universal among Republicans, so we have left that out.)
Democrats should label the GOP as the party of Criminals, Cranks, and Creeps. Candidates everywhere, not just those running against these particular scoundrels, should claim, correctly, that these are the avatars of the modern GOP. Their party is deeply, profoundly unprincipled. Voters should know.
Criminals
Rep. Max Miller (OH-07)
Miller is an incumbent who’s continuing to run for re-election despite allegations from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno (Sen. Moreno’s daughter), that Miller physically abused her, held a gun to her head, and broke their daughter’s collarbone. To defend himself publicly, Miller released sensitive photos of their daughter, including one where the 2-year-old was completely naked.1
This is not the first time Miller has been accused of domestic abuse. In 2021, his former girlfriend Stephanie Grisham accused Miller of physical and emotional abuse. Miller sued Grisham for defamation before dropping the suit after reaching a confidential settlement in 2023. In 2026, amid Miller’s public dispute with Moreno, Grisham filed a lawsuit against Miller for violating the agreement and disparaging her in a news interview where he said her abuse allegations were an attempt to sell her memoir.2
When asked about the abuse claims, House Speaker Mike Johnson called Miller “a great Member of Congress.”3
AG Ken Paxton (TX-SEN)
While serving as attorney general, Paxton was indicted for securities fraud after convincing investors to put $840,000 into a tech company without disclosing he was making a commission.4 Paxton was also investigated by the FBI and impeached by the Republican-controlled State House on corruption and bribery charges after eight of his closest aides accused him of bribery and abusing his office to help a friend and campaign donor.5 The state was forced to pay $6.6 million to four former employees who said they were fired by Paxton after reporting his corruption to the FBI.6
Also, despite claims that he is tough-on-crime, Paxton offered lenient plea deals in child sex crimes—including a one-day jail sentence for one abuser, and, in another case, a deal that kept a man convicted of child sex trafficking off the sex offender registry.7
Sen. Dan Sullivan (AK-SEN)
Sullivan has made up to $2 million in stock trades while in office, improperly disclosing trades in violation of federal law and becoming “among the more prolific stock traders in the Senate.”8 He also failed to disclose trades in Mowi, a corporate competitor to Alaska’s fishing industry, an industry that Sullivan claims to support.9 He then hauled in hundreds of thousands of dollars from the commercial trawling industry while watering down federal restrictions on their industry.10 And his donors have spent more than $1.5 million showering Sullivan with trips to golf resorts, luxury hotels and restaurants.11
Sen. Jon Husted (OH-SEN)
Husted was at the center of the largest bribery scandal in Ohio’s history, selling out Ohioans to pass a billion-dollar bailout for the utility company FirstEnergy, which then funneled $1 million to Husted’s gubernatorial campaign.12
Husted’s campaign hired a political director, Stephen Woytek, who participated in Nazi military reenactments, “wearing an SS uniform in February 2018 and marching in an area that is adorned with Nazi flags.” His political director changed his Facebook profile photo “to one identified online as real soldiers from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler division in 1941.” Woytek also “recently added to a public playlist of songs celebrating Rhodesia, a defunct White-minority-ruled nation often venerated by white supremacists.” Upon learning about the political director’s social media, the Husted campaign said they had “part[ed] ways” with Woytek.13
Sen. Roger Marshall (KS-SEN)
In his 25 years as an OB-GYN, Senator Roger Marshall repeatedly sued patients for outstanding medical debt, including new mothers who had C-sections, and others who had miscarriages. Unpaid bills ranged from several thousand dollars to as little as $101. At least 81 former patients were arrested during court proceedings. One patient was at home with her 2-year-old and eight months pregnant when she was arrested. Another patient had her case dismissed after Marshall sued for a $520 bill to remove placenta that remained in the patient’s uterus after birth—proper care which Marshall failed to provide in the original birthing service.14
Marshall has also spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on dozens of trips to his luxury Florida beach house, while trying to hide his beach house from voters.15
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (NJ-07)
Kean campaigned on banning Members of Congress from trading stocks, but since he’s been elected, Kean has broken the law multiple times by failing to disclose his own stock trades. He has engaged in hundreds of thousands of dollars in trades in just the last couple of years.16
Rep. Nancy Mace (SC-01) – In office but not on the 2026 ballot
In 2026, the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into allegations that Mace overcharged a congressional program meant to cover Members’ housing costs. The Office of Congressional Conduct found “substantial reason to believe” Mace “engaged in improper reimbursement practices,” concluding she collected about $9,500 more than what her residency costs and noting that she refused to be interviewed as part of the inquiry.17 Former staffers also accused Mace of misusing her office resources. For example, former aides said that Mace directed them to create burner social media accounts to monitor criticism and praise her online, “saying things that weren’t true.”18
Cranks
Rep. Mike Collins (GA-SEN)
Collins’s son-in-law is David Alan Scheer, a white nationalist influencer who was featured prominently on Collins’ campaign website and social media, attended Collins’ Senate primary election-night victory party, and lives on a property owned by Collins. Scheer has more than 1.5 million followers across his platforms where he posts content like infographics blaming Jews for being responsible for “every single aspect” of gun control, abortion, the LGBTQ movement and “pornography and hook up culture.” Scheer has stated, “there’s nothing wrong with White Nationalism” and promoted Patriot Front, the white supremacist hate group that marches on cities chanting “Sieg Heil.”19
Also, in 2026, Collins’ chief of staff was exposed for using his position to attempt to free a Holocaust denier from prison. Collins’ top staffer detailed his efforts in a group chat with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and other neo-Nazis.20 He also posted this photo of himself on X:
Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ-09)
Gosar was censured by the House and stripped of his committee assignments in 2021 after posting a bizarre anime video depicting himself killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.21 In 2023, Gosar used his official House.gov newsletter to direct people to a Holocaust-denier website that praised him for attacking “Jewish warmongers” for their support of Ukraine. Gosar was promoting Veterans Today, an antisemitic website that has called the Holocaust a “lie” and a “hoax” and praised Hitler as a “great man” and “a man of valor.”22 Gosar has also associated himself with and promoted multiple white supremacist and antisemitic groups. In 2021, Gosar spoke at a conference organized by white supremacist Nick Fuentes at which Fuentes said there was still hope for his America First movement in Congress “thanks to - almost exclusively - to Representative Paul Gosar.”23
Rep. Scott Perry (PA-10)
Perry has a long record of promoting bigotry and conspiracy theories. In 2024, Perry posted a meme on his campaign Facebook account depicting a Jewish cabal of bankers with hooked noses controlling the economy, adding “Says it all…” In a 2021 official House hearing, Perry repeated the racist and false “Great Replacement” theory that nonwhite immigrants are being brought to the United States to dilute the voting power of conservative white Americans multiple times.24 And in 2024, Perry told his Republican colleagues that the Ku Klux Klan is “the military wing of the Democratic party” and that migrants coming to the U.S. “have no interest in being Americans.”25
Rep. Eli Crane (AZ-02)
In 2023 during a House floor debate on his amendment to restrict diversity programs in the military, Crane said the amendment “has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or Black people or anybody can serve.” In the same debate, Crane declared that “the military was never intended to be, you know, inclusive. Its strength is not its diversity.”26
Rep. Randy Fine (FL-06)
Fine has built a record of open anti-Muslim bigotry. He wrote of Rep. Ilhan Omar, “I’m sure it is difficult to see us welcome the killer of so many of your fellow Muslim terrorists. The only shame is that you serve in Congress.” House Democratic leadership condemned the comments as “unhinged, racist and Islamophobic” and demanded an apology, which Fine refused to give.27
Fine has also responded to images of starving Palestinian children with the hashtags #StarveAway and #KeepOnStarving, called Rep. Rashida Tlaib a “Muslim terrorist” as well, and said in a Fox News interview that Israel should “nuke” Gaza. On the same day he was appointed to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Fine posted “starve away” in response to an article about people in Gaza dying of malnutrition.28
Rep. Andrew Clyde (GA-09)
Clyde has persistently attacked his trans colleague Sarah McBride, introducing her as "the gentleman from Delaware” in hearings and calling her by her deadname for engagement on social media.29
Rep. Keith Self (TX-03)
During a 2025 House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing, Self twice introduced Rep. Sarah McBride as “Mr. McBride.” When the subcommittee’s top Democrat asked Self to address McBride correctly, Self abruptly adjourned the hearing rather than doing so.30
Weeks later at a congressional hearing on censorship, Self quoted Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, telling the room, “A direct quote from Joseph Goebbels: ‘It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion,’ and I think that may be what we’re discussing here.”31
Brandon Herrera (TX-23)
Herrera has bragged about owning a special copy of Mein Kampf and “goose-stepped” to a marching song used by Nazis. Herrera also joked that he was “basically an honorary veteran” because he’s considered suicide.32 Herrera was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans as recently as 2019, called the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression, and claimed President Abraham Lincoln “didn’t actually free anybody.”33
Herrera also has made vulgar sexual and derogatory comments about the appearance and intelligence of women. He “compared feminists’ weight to whales and nuclear bombs, joked that he was irresistible to ‘fat bitches’ after rubbing ranch dressing on his body, and described liberal women discussing guns as ‘both fat and wrong.’ He also lobbed sexually explicit insults at a gun safety advocate and her children.” At a 2024 event with former Rep. Matt Gaetz, “Herrera said that the weight of the world’s population was equivalent to about two dozen feminists.” Herrera further attacked gun-safety advocate Shannon Watts, “using offensive sexual slang to describe Watts and then saying that her being a mother ‘doesn’t mean I have to give a shit about your political opinions.’” When asked about these comments, Herrera doubled down “and his campaign responded with a joking photo referring to the vulgar remarks.”34
Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15)
The day before January 6th, Miller attended a rally near the Capitol and said, “Hitler was right on one thing,” quoting the line that “whoever has the youth has the future.” Miller apologized only after officials from both parties condemned the remarks and Sen. Tammy Duckworth called for her resignation.35 The next day, Miller voted to overturn the 2020 election results.36
In 2022 while at a Trump rally the day after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Miller thanked Trump for “the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court.” Miller’s spokesperson claimed she misread prepared remarks.40 During the 2022 primary, Miller’s Republican opponent, Rep. Rodney Davis, said her record included “praising Adolf Hitler” and “having a convicted child sex offender serve as her personal driver,” even declaring she “is not fit for public office.”37
Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-GOV)
Biggs has a number of ties to white supremacists and antisemitic movements. In 2023, Biggs appeared on white supremacist Stew Peters’ show, who labeled Judaism a “death cult” and called for a “final solution” that involves the deportation of American Jews. “Keep preaching,” Biggs told Peters.38 In 2024, Biggs participated in a rally co-sponsored by several extremist organizations, including the Proud Boys.39 To push back on allegations of white supremacy, Biggs compared himself to Confederate General Robert E. Lee.40
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (AL-GOV)
In 2023 when asked during a radio interview whether white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military, Tuberville responded, “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.” He then spent two months refusing to say that white nationalists are racist, telling CNN “that’s your opinion” when pressed, before finally conceding under bipartisan pressure that “white nationalists are racists.”41
Tuberville has also called for forced deportations of Muslim Americans. In 2025, Tuberville posted a statement saying, “Islam is not a religion. It's a cult” before declaring that we must “SEND THEM HOME NOW or we'll become the United Caliphate of America.”42
Creeps
Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (PA-07)
In 2024, Mackenzie was caught lying about his age on Tinder, claiming to be 29 when he was actually 37.43 More than 100 women from the district signed a letter demanding an apology, writing that “trolling on Tinder for younger women” while serving in the legislature was bad enough, but that Mackenzie also “never took accountability for the lie.” Mackenzie refused to apologize and dismissed the women as “Democrat operatives.”44
In 2026, Mackenzie was accused of fabricating an entire career. His campaign described him as “a real estate salesperson licensed in PA,” but reporting found that his real estate license was issued in 2006, expired in 2008, and was never renewed, and that he was working for the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania during that period. His campaign would not say whether he ever used the license or made a single sale, and his office did not respond to reports that a staffer scrubbed the Tinder episode from his Wikipedia page.45
Rep. Clay Higgins (LA-03)
Higgins wrote to a judge seeking leniency for cop-beating rioter Ryan Nichols, praising the “good character, faith and core principles” of a guy who admitted to arming himself with a crowbar and attacking police with pepper spray. On January 6th, Nichols said it was “is the second fucking revolution” and told congressmembers, “if you voted for fucking treason, we’re going to drag your fucking ass through the streets.”46
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (WI-03)
In his memoir, Van Orden recounted how he sexually harassed two female service members, telling a story in which he revealed a male lieutenant’s enlarged scrotum to the unsuspecting women. Van Orden wrote that he approached two “cute girls” and walked them over to the lieutenant, who was behind a curtain. “I whipped the curtain back. ‘Have you ever seen anything like this?’ I asked. They gasped in horror as they saw the LT in all of his glory. I’m sure they never wanted to have anything to do with a man ever again,” he wrote.47
Mark Lamb (AZ-05)
Mark Lamb won the primary for Arizona’s 5th Congressional district despite being embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal. An investigation found that several women claimed Lamb sent explicit messages and nude photos, then used threats or intimidation to cover it up, that he initiated sexual encounters involving himself, his wife, and others, and that he made a racist joke and cheered other derogatory remarks in messages with a border extremist.48 The Republican Pinal County attorney assigned an investigator to review the allegations, and the county’s former top prosecutor said Lamb sought to have two women criminally investigated over their social media posts about him. Lamb’s campaign did not deny the racist texts, dismissing them as “10 years old.”49 Lamb’s Republican primary opponent also called him “a disgrace, an embarrassment, and unfit for office.”50
Rep. John McGuire (VA-05)
While serving in the Virginia State Senate, McGuire was the only senator to vote against ending a ‘loophole’ in the state’s child marriage law that allowed grown adults to marry 16-year-old children.51 In 2026, McGuire doubled down on supporting child marriage, defending his lone vote.52
Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO-04)
Boebert was infamously kicked out of a family-friendly Beetlejuice performance in 2023 for vaping and groping her date.53 In 2025, she was exposed for using thousands of dollars in campaign funds to pay to see her rumored boyfriend Kid Rock perform in Dallas.54 Boebert has also publicly stated that she was “tired of this separation of church and state junk.”55
Rep. Cory Mills (FL-07) – In office but lost his primary
In October 2025, a judge granted Mill’s ex-girlfriend a restraining order after she said he threatened to release sexually explicit images of her. In response to the allegations, Republicans and Democrats have called on Mills to resign or be expelled.56 Another ex-girlfriend told police of a domestic assault in February 2025, though recanted the story later. However, the Washington Post reported on body camera footage in which the woman showed a police officer bruises on her arms and marks on her face after a dispute with Mills.57
Chuck Edwards (NC-11) – In office but ended his reelection campaign
In 2026, Edwards faced a House Ethics Committee investigation over allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances toward several much younger female staffers. Edwards first called the allegations “baseless.”58 In August, the nonpartisan investigation found that Edwards had engaged in “inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers,” in which he sent them gifts, including jewelry worth over $1,000, flowers, massages, and guns. He also expressed overly personal sentiments in text messages and handwritten notes.59
Edwards announced he would end his reelection bid after the release of the investigation. Per the Ethics Committee’s recommendation, House colleagues moved to censure him over his conduct. Edwards sent a letter to some members defending himself, saying that “context matters” and “poetry is not sexual misconduct.”60
