In early October Mother Jones‘ Kiera Butler published an investigative piece on J.D. Vance acolyte Lance Wallnau‘s scheme to activate a huge swath of Evangelicals to, presumably, screw up elections in swing-state counties under the ruse of “fighting” “fraud.”
Details of the apparently sprawling operation are scarce, but Wallnau (operative who called Kamala Harris a “Jezebel” who’s trying to “emasculate men”) is bringing in a number of heavy hitters. The title is “Project 19” because apparently we don’t have enough “Projects” stinking up democracy right now. From Butler’s piece:
“For Wallnau, politics are more than just fire-and-brimstone sermons, because he has an ambitious plan for the 2024 presidential election. It’s called Project 19, a reference to the 19 counties in swing states that could determine the outcome.
Fred Clarkson, a researcher with the religious extremism watchdog group Political Research Associates, has reported that Wallnau sometimes says swing states aren’t fully red because people aren’t praying hard enough. Wallnau said earlier this year, ‘If we don’t have apostles and prophets in the territory, then demons control the territory and the minds of people are under the influence of devils.'”
Since, according to Wallnau, “swing states aren’t praying hard enough,” he’s enlisted a number of MAGA heavy-hitters to power the operation—including disgraced economist Larry Kudlow and Brooke Rollins, acting director of the United States Domestic Policy Council under Trump. But the networked team advancing “Project 19” involves many other influential folks inside the MAGA-terrorist movement.
Like with any clumsy right-wing operation, they players are myriad and organization is haphazard at best. Influence is being brought to bear from radical New Apostolic Reformation, America First Policy Institute, America First Works and many other groups, officials and even sitting congresspeople who fall under the rubric of Christian Nationalism.
What may seem like a fringe operation to casual observers is actually mainstreamed inside Republican circles, since J.D. Vance recently appeared alongside Wallnau at the so-called “Courage Tour” extremist jamboree. As Matthew D. Taylor noted in a Twitter thread, the same “spiritual warfare” under-girding January 6th’s insurrection is taking shape now.
