This one is so wild, you’d swear it’s satire. But it’s NOT.
From the Washington Free Beacon: A “furry” who identifies as a honey badger, celebrated the assassinations of Charlie Kirk and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and was banned from X for saying “america deserved 9/11” is running in the Democratic primary for a competitive House seat in Michigan.
Samuel Smeltzer, a 36-year-old IT contractor from Lansing who goes by the alias “Elyon Badger” and dresses as a honey badger at political events and furry conventions, filed as a candidate to represent Michigan’s Seventh Congressional District. Though his fundraising has lagged behind frontrunner Bridget Brink, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, his campaign has drawn local buzz including an October front-page photo shoot in Michigan’s Between the Lines LGBT newspaper that touts his “honey badger energy.”
The campaign is the latest example of the online-activist wing of the Democratic Party rising up to challenge mainstream leaders and a window into how these activists have merged online memes with fringe political views and support for violence.
Just after Kirk’s assassination in September, Smeltzer posted a meme on Bluesky reading, “If guns make us so safe, why am I dead?” He added, “How can we defeat evil, if evil is mourned when it’s defeated?”
The U.S. Congress seat for Michigan’s 7th District is currently held by Republican Rep. Tom Barrett, a former U.S. Army officer who just won the seat in the November 2024 election.
Samuel Smeltzer, a queer Democrat Socialist, is among those running in Michigan’s Democrat primary with the hope of unseating Barrett.
Smeltzer’s “campaign website” features multiple images of himself dressed up in wild costumes. A statement on his “About Me” section reads:
I’m Elyon Badger (Samuel Smeltzer), a Michigan Army National Guard veteran, LGBTQIA+ activist, and small business owner running to represent Michigan’s 7th District in Congress. I’ve experienced the failings of our system firsthand and I’m running to build a government that finally works for the people, NOT THE BILLIONAIRES.
Smeltzer’s policy platform includes universal healthcare and cancel student debt. He has also called for ICE to be abolished, and wrote in one post, “I’m for putting every member of ICE in the alligator alcatraz.”
I’m for putting every member of ICE in the alligator alcatraz
OFFICIAL POLICY OF MY CAMPAIGN, when I get elected, every member of ICE is going to the gulags they built.
— Elyon113 (@elyon113.bsky.social) October 5, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Smeltzer posted a number of vile remarks on social media on the day of Charlie Kirk’s death, including, “I for one, celebrate the death of every Nazi” and “Good things can happen.”
He also released an “official campaign statement on Charlie Kirk,” claiming Kirk “was a free speech abolitionist” and a “white supremacist who preached stochastic terrorism.”
In October 2024, Smeltzer was booted off X for a post which declared that “America deserved 9/11.”
In December 2024, Smeltzer celebrated the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and praised his accused killer, Luigi Mangione.
In one post on Saturday, Smeltzer claimed, “I solemnly swear when I am elected to Congress Steve Bannon will be the very first to go to prison, then Stephen Miller and the rest. I will contract private mercenaries or I will deploy the National Guard if I have to secure their arrests. They have caused a century of damage to this country.”
I solemnly swear when I am elected to Congress Steve Bannon will be the very first to go to prison, then Stephen Miller and the rest.
I will contract private mercenaries or I will deploy the National Guard if I have to secure their arrests
They have caused a century of damage to this country
— Elyon113 (@elyon113.bsky.social) November 8, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Smeltzer has raged against billionaires on social media, including Elon Musk. In one wild tirade on Friday, he wrote, “The billionaire class gets their money by literally killing us, it’s time that we bring the war to their mansions we need to make the billionaire class afraid of us to the point where they won’t even leave their bunkers We need to start organizing and we need to start committing. We need to find their mansions, yachts and jets and they all need to be burned Then we can drop the guillotine on them.”
The Michigan GOP commented on the report, writing, “A “furry” who celebrated the assassinations of Charlie Kirk and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and said, “america deserved 9/11,” is running as a Democrat in the primary to take Rep. Tom Barrett. Welcome to today’s Democrat Party.”
A “furry” who celebrated the assassinations of Charlie Kirk and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and said, “america deserved 9/11,” is running as a Democrat in the primary to take Rep. Tom Barrett.
Welcome to today’s Democrat Party.https://t.co/IzAWHhx7jM
— Michigan GOP (@MIGOP) November 8, 2025
The NRCC also blasted the radical candidate, writing, “Democrat candidate in #MI07, Samuel Smeltzer aka “Elyon Badger,” went on an unhinged social media rant mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination. This dangerous rhetoric is unacceptable.”
Democrat candidate in #MI07, Samuel Smeltzer aka “Elyon Badger,” went on an unhinged social media rant mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
This dangerous rhetoric is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/EX0nQ6TuI1
— NRCC (@NRCC) September 13, 2025
Last week, Smeltzer posted a video on Instagram and bizarrely argued that trick-or-treating is proof that socialism works.
View this post on Instagram
While out campaigning, Smeltzer often wears wild “furry” costumes.
“I’m running for MI-07 to unseat Tom Barrett, my only goal is universal healthcare, I am no longer asking for donations, I am demanding YOU put in the work to get me elected. ONLY YOU can progress us forward, be feral,” he wrote in one post in September.
View this post on Instagram
In one video in July, he appeared without the costume, but stood beside a life-sized cutout of the Republican congressman he’s trying to unseat, and begged for donations.
View this post on Instagram
READ MORE from the Washington Free Beacon.
Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter.)
The DML News App: www.X.com/DMLNewsApp
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
