Nick Fuentes is just the latest white supremacist embraced by Defend Texas Liberty

Oct. 23, 2023 "Nick Fuentes is just the latest white supremacist embraced by Defend Texas Liberty" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. In recent weeks, allies of the deep-pocketed conservative PAC Defend Texas Liberty have sought to downplay a meeting between the group’s former leader, Jonathan Stickland, and prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes. That includes, among others, Ella Maulding, a social media coordinator for Stickland’s consulting firm who has praised Fuentes as the “greatest civil rights leader in history”; and Shelby Griesinger, the treasurer for Defend Texas Liberty who has claimed on social media that Jews worship a false god and shared memes that depict them as the enemy of Republicans. Conservative social media personality Ella Maulding and Fort Worth-based podcaster Kaden Lopez exit the offices of Pale Horse Strategies outside of Fort Worth, Texas on Oct. 6, 2023. Credit: The Texas Tribune Also spotted outside the meeting with Fuentes: Kyle Rittenhouse, who has continued to step up his engagement in far-right Texas politics since he was acquitted of homicide after fatally shooting two people at a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin. Citing his Jewish family members who he said were victims of the Holocaust, Rittenhouse also strongly denounced Fuentes’ “hideous views.” Rittenhouse did not, however, say anything about his connection to Griesenger, the Defend Texas Liberty treasurer who has said Jews worship a false god, praised Christian Nationalism and shared QAnon conspiracy theories that borrow heavily from centuries-old tropes that have frequently led to Jewish bloodshed, including in the Holocaust.