North Dakota Lawmakers Share Far-Right, White Nationalist Content On X

At age 22, North Dakota State Reps. Matthew Heilman and Brandon Prichard are two of the youngest state legislators in the country. Elected in 2022, Heilman and Prichard are close friends who espouse far-right views on immigration, LGBTQ rights, and abortion. They also use their official accounts to share, like, and interact with content by white nationalists and other extremists on X.

Several of the accounts promoted by Heilman and Prichard are connected to American Virtue, a now-defunct organization founded by activists with close ties to Holocaust-denying white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Others are anonymous accounts which have boosted Fuentes and his racist “groyper” movement or promoted far-right politics.

From “American Populist Union” to “American Virtue”

In 2021, Vincent Dao co-founded the American Populist Union, which described itself on its Twitter account as, “Conservatives standing for America’s workers and families, NOT the interests of Corporations, Globalist Elites, and Foreign Nations.” Besides Dao, key figures in the APU included Nathaniel Abbott, John Doyle, and Jack Francis (a.k.a. “Red Eagle Politics”).

According to a Political Research Associates report by Ben Lorber, while spokespersons for the APU, such as Dao, Abbott, and Francis, were “careful to distinguish the APU from the groyper movement,” they nonetheless “depart from other conservative leaders in positioning themselves as serious interlocutors with Fuentes and his followers.”

The crowd at the APU’s inaugural conference included many fans of Nick Fuentes, often sporting his signature “America First” hats. John Doyle staged events with Nick Fuentes, including a “Stop the Steal” rally in Detroit, MI in November 2020. And Jack Francis attended the America First Political Action Conference, a white supremacist gathering organized by Fuentes.

The spokespersons for APU have also embraced white nationalist beliefs.

Vincent Dao, for example, once tweeted, “They tell white people they’re crazy and racist for worrying about demographic change, but the writing is on the wall. You have a culture that is already trying to discriminate and hate white people, what happens when white people become the actual minority in America?”

John Doyle, a self-proclaimed white nationalist, once said that “being assassinated was like the best thing that could have happened” to Martin Luther King Jr. He also advised Americans to develop a “reflexive ‘who cares?’ response to invocations of American slavery, Indian genocide, racism, misogyny, intolerance, etc.”

Lorber also noted that “private Discord servers associated with [Nathaniel] Abbott and [John] Doyle” were rife with antisemitic slurs and conspiracy theories — including Holocaust denial.

By the following year, the APU was forced to rebrand after it announced a rally set for April 20th — Adolf Hitler’s birthday.

Now known as American Virtue, it continued, in the words of Vincent Dao, “building bridges to power.” According to a July 9, 2022 video posted to American Virtue’s YouTube channel, the rebranded group would be a “collaborative effort” between Abbott, Dao, Doyle, Francis, Charles Svestka, Carson Wolf, James Anderson White, David Carlson, and Monsieur Dean.

Carson Wolf has hailed Nick Fuentes as a “hero” and “emperor,” joked about creating an organization called “Make White Babies,” and posted about his belief in “white genocide.”

Charles Svetska has called for the deportation of Jewish conservative Ben Shapiro, declared that “America is going to need a Franco” — referring to the Spanish dictator — and shared a GIF that called Franco the “G.O.A.T.,” meaning the “greatest of all time.” After an antisemitic Polish lawmaker extinguished a Hanukkah menorah, he reacted by posting “Konfederation Rising.”

In other words, the style and substance of American Virtue differed little — if at all — from that of its predecessor organization. As Ben Lorber wrote, American Virtue was “closely connected to the groypers in the Gen-Z far-right ecosystem” and appeared to be the “best vehicle to pull establishment conservatism closer towards hardline White Christian nationalism.”

Last year, however, in October 2023, the operator of American Virtue’s X account explained in a series of posts that its “original participants have moved on to bigger and better projects” and that it was “time we closed up shop.” The American Virtue website now shows visitors the message that the amvirtue.org domain is “waiting to be adopted.”

Rep. Matthew Heilman (North Dakota District 7)

Rep. Matthew Heilman represents North Dakota’s 7th District and is vocal about his far-right views. He’s called for an end to birthright citizenship, said that we need “mass deportations,” called the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 “awful,” and, after riots in France over the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, mockingly wrote that “Diversity is our strength.”

Heilman has also shared, liked, and interacted with content published by white Christian nationalists and other bigots.

Heilman, who spoke at American Virtue’s State of the Movement conference in 2022, shared posts from the account for American Virtue as well as the accounts for Vincent Dao, John Doyle, Carson Wolf, and Charles Svestska:

Archived: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Heilman shared a post from John Doyle on Dec. 3, 2023 which described America as “dysgenic and depressed.” He also shared one from Nov. 25, 2023 in which Doyle predicted that a “significant PR crisis” would “suddenly come up against Conor McGregor” — an MMA fighter who used his X account to stir up an anti-immigrant mob in Ireland.

On Oct. 28, 2023, Adam Johnson, a white hockey player, was killed when a Black opposing player’s skate injured his neck in what was initially dubbed a “freak accident.” In response, Doyle complained that “we are nationally allergic to holding black people accountable for their own behavior.” “‘Freak accident,'” Heilman wrote in response.

Heilman also reposted Doyle’s post and simply wrote “Wow.” (The opposing player, Matt Petgrave, was later charged with manslaughter.)

In a June 13, 2023 post, Heilman touted an online show that he called an “Epic crossover” with Doyle and “Sovereign Brah” — a far-right Internet personality who’s said that women should “drop the 19th Amendment,” advocated for an “airline owned and operated almost exclusively by straight white men,” and pushed antisemitic conspiracies.

Heilman routinely interacts with Vincent Dao, promoting his account and wishing him a happy birthday. On Aug. 11, 2023, Heilman posted that he “ran into” Jack Francis (a.k.a. “Red Eagle Politics”), calling the encounter a “Life changing experience.” In a Dec. 13, 2022 post, he promoted a video by Nathaniel Abbott, whom he called a “good friend.”

Heilman has reposted content from AF Post, a Nick Fuentes fan account, over a dozen times:

_{Archived: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,} _{and 13.}

In addition, Heilman has shared content from antisemitic Christian nationalist Andrew Torba, white nationalist Kyle Clifton (an acolyte of Nick Fuentes who is currently living with Neo-Nazi Ryan Sanchez), and an antisemitic account called “Papal Supremacy.” He also reposted an X user who wrote “‘diversity’ is codespeak for ‘less white people'”:

And one who asked “Why are black people allowed to be proud of their race but not whites?”:

Rep. Brandon Prichard (North Dakota District 8)

Rep. Brandon Prichard represents North Dakota’s 8th District and summarized his political leanings in a Jan. 14, 2024 post in which he declared: “(1) Christ is King, (2), Rebuild the Traditional Family Unit, (3) RINOs Beware.” In fact, Rep. Prichard has made it abundantly clear that he wants Christians to govern at the expense of all other religions.

On Oct. 2, 2023, he called for teaching children in “all k-12 classrooms” that “abortion is murder.”

The next day he wrote, “The history of the United States is closely connected to the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Bible. Declaring Christ and His teachings as central to the history and future of our government is crucial. Thus, it needs to be in every state’s code and constitution!”

And in an Oct. 4, 2023 post he declared that “If being a ‘book burner’ means getting disgusting books like ‘Let’s Talk About It’ or ‘This Book is Gay’ out of schools and libraries, let me be the first person to light the match!”

Other posts are saturated with racist and anti-LGBTQ sentiment, like one where he criticized the new design of the Minnesota state flag, and accused the state of allowing “baby-murder, gender mutilation of kids, and refugee camps in downtowns.” Or one where he posted a racist cartoon depicting Black refugees as scythe-wielding invaders:

And, much like his friend Rep. Heilman, he gladly amplifies content from other extremists.

Prichard reposted a post by John Doyle in which Doyle fantasized about Trump once again taking power. “Think about how much fun we’re going to have humiliating these people when it’s all over,” he wrote. “Statues, new federal holidays, The Art of the Deal now required reading for K12 education, etc. Normal people will shrug — what’s the big deal? But our enemies will know too.”

When AF Post gloated that “6 months after Roe’s overturning, a quarter of American women who would’ve aborted their babies carried their pregnancies to term,” Prichard reposted this message and wrote “W” — meaning “win.”

Prichard also shared an undercover video by Kyle Clifton of what Clifton called a “Freemason ‘Master Mason Degree’ ritual.” Clifton also wrote that he was “shocked to learn how much of it comes from ancient Talmudic teachings.” Ignoring the antisemitism, Prichard wrote that he was “very supportive of reviving the Anti-Masonic Party.”

On Oct. 4, 2023, an account called “Smash Baals” posted “Christ is Lord. We’re going to win.” In response, Prichard wrote “It’s so true.” The operator of the Smash Baals account is a Christian nationalist who said Martin Luther King Jr. is “not a man to be celebrated,” claimed that the “Crusades were justified,” and called for the execution of women who have abortions.

Prichard also “liked” a Nov. 22, 2023 post by Smash Baals which said “There’s no reason for porn to not be illegal.”