GOP Senate candidates sought support of anti-LGBT group: report

GOP Senate candidates reportedly asked an anti-LGBT group that claimed a link between homosexuality to pedophilia for its support in their campaigns ahead of the November midterm elections. 

Kevin Cramer and Corey Stewart, who earlier this week clinched the Republican Senate nominations for North Dakota and Virginia, respectively, completed a “Senate Candidate Survey” for the organization Public Advocate of the United States, CNN reported Thursday. 

{mosads}The group was founded in 1978 by Eugene Delgaudio, who in February said he believes that former President Obama was a “child molester,” and has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group for its anti-gay activism. 

The eight-question survey reportedly administered to both Cramer and Stewart asked whether either candidate would “oppose all efforts to make public restrooms and changing-rooms unsafe through so-called ‘Transgender Bathrooms’ legislation and regulations — which have the effect of encouraging and protecting pedophiles.” 

CNN reported both candidates responded “yes” to that question and another asking if either agreed that public schools should be “prevented from brainwashing elementary school children with the Homosexual Agenda — such as California’s current policy speculating widely about the sexual activity of past presidents and figures?” 

According to the publication, the anti-LGBT group has been running advertisements online supporting Cramer’s election bid.

A spokesman for the North Dakota candidate contended that he doesn’t believe transgender people are “are at all comparable to pedophiles” and called the report a “gross misinterpretation of the survey question.”

“Let’s be clear. Congressman Cramer doesn’t support the teaching of history with any special emphasis on any particular group,” Cramer spokesman Tim Rasmussen said in a statement to the outlet. “History is history and should be taught as such. Additionally, Kevin does not think transgender people are at all comparable to pedophiles — this a gross misinterpretation of the survey question.”

The publication noted that a representative for Stewart did not respond to a request for comment on the claim.

The report arrives amid a wave of criticism Stewart continues to receive as he refuses to disavow white nationalists who endorse him.