PIERRE, SD – Religious conservative leaders and publications celebrated the first defeat of incumbent Republican Senator Michael Walsh on Tuesday, bragging about the success of their efforts to attack him solely because he voted against the anti-porn age verification bill they supported .
The celebratory messages from religious conservatives included images of graphic violence, describing their actions in terms of murder and ‘scalping’, and shooting their fellow party member in the bull’s-eye with a view to elimination.
Terry Schilling, the leader of the well-funded, pro-censorship conservative lobby American Principles Project (APP), Posted on his X account: “First scalp collected in age verification,” followed by an ad his group made against Walsh.
The ad showed a map of the US with the 17 states that have passed age verification laws painted in Republican red and claiming to “protect children from online pornography.”
“But not South Dakota,” the APP ad continues, claiming Walsh “sided with the porn industry over families” and urging voters to vote for someone else who “will take the side with us instead of the creeps on the internet.”
Walsh received 39% of the vote, coming in second to Greg Blanc, who received 55% of the vote in a three-way race.
APP Political Director Joe Proenza Posted the election results on X added: “Earlier this year, Michael Walsh voted with the porn companies to end age verification in South Dakota. Next year Michael Walsh won’t vote for shit anymore.” He also threatened other dissenting Republicans to support the controversial age verification bills or we’ll send you home.
Religious conservative activist William E. Simon Sr., affiliated with the DeVos Center and the Heritage Foundation, replied to Schilling’s post with another direct threat: ‘That’s the way: focused [emoji of a bull’s eye].”
Conservative Catholic publication Catholic Vote reported its main result was calling Walsh a “pro-porn Republican senator” and directly linked his loss to the fact that he was “the decisive vote to kill an age verification bill that would have protected children from online pornography.”
Opponents of the bills – including the Free Speech Coalition and many other free speech and digital rights organizations – have noted that the proposed laws are not written in a way that would allow direct compliance by adult sites to prevent minors from accessing access adult content. likely endangering them further by sending them to unregulated offshore rogue websites.
Catholic Vote explained that while most state age verification bills have passed by wide bipartisan margins, South Dakota’s HB 1257 “was unique among such bills in that it had received significant Republican opposition,” although it passed the South Dakota Senate by 31 -4 check.
HB 1257 was killed via a procedural 4-3 vote among seven Republicans on the South Dakota Senate Judiciary Committee. The other senators who voted alongside Walsh — Michael Rohl, David Wheeler and Helene Duhamel — all received renominations in “safe” districts, leading out-of-state operators like Schilling to target Walsh to teach other independent senators a lesson to learn. thoughtful Republicans who may worry about the unconstitutional implications of the age verification laws, all copycat versions of model bills drafted by anti-porn activists.
APP policy director Jon Schweppe wrote on X that Walsh “should have voted for age verification to protect children.”
“Oh well. His opponent next year!” he added.
Main image: Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project