A GOP gubernatorial candidate in Georgia literally wants the church to run the state

The gubernatorial primaries in Georgia have been dominated by the showdown between incumbent Brian Kemp — a run-of-the-mill Republican who has banned critical race theory, passed an abortion ban, and prevented trans athletes from competing in sports, but wouldn’t go so far as to overturn an election for Donald Trump — and David Perdue, the former senator and Trump’s hand-picked choice who has no objections to interfering with the democratic process.

Somehow, that showdown that is literally premised on a fundamental belief in democracy is not the most bonkers thing happening on the Republican ballot in Georgia.

Meet Kandiss Taylor. She’s a mom and a certified educator, and she’s here to demolish the Satanic tablets that she believes have held Georgia captive since the 1980s.

Taylor — who hit the campaign trail this spring with the slogan, “Jesus, Guns, Babies” — is disappointed that Kemp didn’t overturn the 2020 election, sure, but she’s got bigger fish to fry. Perdue might be willing to upend the will of the people, but Taylor says she is the only candidate “bold enough to stand up to the Luciferian Cabal.” She’s certainly the only one bold enough to say out loud that she believes Satan’s running things, so, that’s ... something.

For the last few weeks, Taylor has been making the campaign rounds through her home state of Georgia. On each stop, she’s made a habit of saying things out loud, into microphones, in front of crowds of people, and on camera, that make you wonder if she knows that people are listening. One example: She’s argued that the founding fathers of America came here to “destroy American Indians’ homes and their land” in order to protect “our right to worship Jesus freely.” She absolutely did not mean that as a criticism of the founders, either. Just straight up manifest destiny shit.

Worshipping Jesus doesn’t just stay on the campaign trail for Taylor. If her run for governor is successful (extremely unlikely, seeing as she’s polling a distant third in the Republican primary), Taylor’s ready to merge church and state. “They’re not gonna tell us ‘separation of church and state.’ We are the church, we run this state,” she told a rally over the weekend.

She’s also taking aim at the Georgia Guidestones, a granite monument erected in 1980 with mysterious origins, according to The Daily Beast. The massive structure contains 10 principles seemingly directed at governments of the world, which has turned it into the central character for conspiracy theorists who believe it is a guideline for the New World Order. It’s a whole thing, and frankly it’s not worth the time it takes to explain it, but Taylor has made destroying it a tentpole issue for her campaign.

Taylor has plenty of more conventional (albeit extreme) conservative views, too, if that’s more your jam. She wants to ban social emotional learning and comprehensive sex education from schools, and she’d ban abortion “when there is any proof of pregnancy at all.”

Maybe it’s telling that the person who believes in allowing the church (specifically, the church of her faith) run the state also believes these things. She’s certainly not the only Republican politician who has pushed for these types of extreme policies that are clearly based on her personal faith. Taylor is right about one thing, at least: She’s the only one who will say it.