An anti-LGBTQ+ social media post by Jadon MacCormack, a Republican candidate and religious podcaster in the 50th House District of Eastern Connecticut, drew bipartisan condemnation Tuesday night, including a suggestion by the leader of the House Republican minority that MacCormack end his campaign.
MacCormack was defiant, offering himself as an answer to what ails a Republican Party that now holds slightly less than one third of the seats in the General Assembly.
“Happy Straight Month! It’s American to be Anti-Pride Month, this is America’s 250th Anniversary,” MacCormack in a Facebook post mocking Pride Month.
“As your State Representative, I, Jadon MacCormack, would stand firmly against the Transgender and LGBT movement that has for too long corrupted our families, undermined parental authority, and eroded the the foundational values of our society,” he wrote.
House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, disavowed the comments by MacCormack, who was a sessional employee of the legislature in 2026, as not representative of his caucus.
“They were immature and reckless, and they show a candidate who isn’t ready for the responsibility he’s asking voters to give him,” Candelora said. “Residents in the 50th District, like voters across the state, want a state representative focused on their paychecks, their property taxes and their kids’ futures. Mr. MacCormack has shown he isn’t that candidate, and the best thing he can do for the 50th District now is step aside.”
Candelora said in a telephone interview Wednesday that MacCormack also has made posts with violent imagery. When the U.S. Supreme Court made its decision legalizing same-sex marriage, Candelora said, MacCormack posted a picture of a noose and the message, “The Bible got it right.”
“I am not going to let a novice Republican candidate define our party or our position,” Candelora said.
MacCormack, 23, of Brooklyn, is challenging Rep. Pat Boyd, D-Pomfret, who has represented the seven-town district for a decade and was unopposed in 2024. Reached by text Tuesday night, MacCormack said he was unaware of Candelora’s statement and offered no immediate reaction.
But he was unapologetic in a text sent at 2:39 a.m. Wednesday after being forwarded Candelora’s statement.
“The House Republican Leader’s comments about me are absurd and reveal a profound lack of character,” MacCormack said. “As an employee in the 2026 Legislative Session serving on the Energy and Technology Committee under House Republican leadership, I gained firsthand insight into who remains loyal to principle and who is willing to play politics at the expense of integrity simply to hold onto power.”
MacCormack said his “principled mindset” is what the GOP needs.
“There is a clear reason Connecticut is in such deep decline: too many Republicans in office have grown weak and complacent. What the party desperately needs is the bold, principled mindset that young conservatives like myself are bringing to the fight,” MacCormack said.
Rather than double down, Candelora suggested MacCormack “do some soul searching.”
Candelora said there is room to debate difficult social issues, including whether allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports puts girls and women at a disadvantage.
“But to suggest his hateful rhetorical is appropriate is not only naive, but it disturbing,” Candelora said.
MacCormack posts commentary and videos on his New England Baptist Podcast. In one, he proclaims himself a fundamentalist adherent of the King James version of the Bible “as the word of God. And anything that stems from that is my doctrine.”
Everyone who has walked the Earth is a sinner, with the exception of Jesus Christ, he says in one video. “Even the thought of foolishness is sin,” he says.
Other videos are political, including a conversation with the leader of the UConn College Republicans after they endorsed him.
Boyd, the representative of a region known as the “Quiet Corner,” defended the right of candidates to express themselves and enjoy “the right to live your life exactly they way you want.”
“But when a candidate crosses the line of basic human decency by judging others and plastering irrational, hateful posts about our neighbors, friends, and family across social media, it threatens the very fabric of our community,” Boyd said in a post on Facebook.
Boyd said he was encouraged by “the strong, bipartisan voices, including Republican House leadership, who have stepped up to call out this immature and reckless behavior.”
The top Democratic leaders of the House denounced MacCormack.
“The CT House of Representatives includes members and staff who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, and it is sickening to think that this candidate wants to spew this kind of poison in the people’s chamber,” House Speaker Matt Ritter and House Majority Leader Jason Rojas said in the joint statement.
Vanita Bhalla, the vice chair of the Connecticut Democratic Party, said that MacCormack represents an element of the contemporary GOP.
“The Republican Party, including the gubernatorial candidate they endorsed last month, have been unapologetic in their support for the felon in the White House, and all the hateful and destructive policies that have come from this Administration,” Bhalla said in a statement. “Jadon MacCormack is just another MAGA extremist.”
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
