Michigan Dems denounce right-wing radio host for racist comments on families

The Michigan Democratic Party on Sunday blasted a longtime GOP activist who filed to run for state Senate as a Democrat and said that “a family should be a white mom, white dad, and white kids.”

Randy Bishop, who goes by “Trucker Randy,” made the comments on an episode of his radio show, “Your Defending Fathers,” that aired in late March, the Detroit News first reported. Several GOP politicians have been on his show, including Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake), House candidate Robert Regan and GOP Attorney General nominee Matt DePerno.

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Bishop also remarked on television commercials that he says are “trying to take away the male’s masculinity.”

“Have you noticed that every single white guy in a TV commercial now is either stupid, dependent on a woman or a complete rumbling, stumbling, bumbling idiot,” Bishop said. “Just take note of it. White men, especially middle-aged white men, are complete idiots in these commercials.”

Bishop has two felony fraud convictions and is currently facing a disturbing the peace charge. In 2020, Facebook shut down some of Bishop’s far-right Facebook pages. 

He previously ran for office as a Republican, is a former chair of the Antrim County Republican Party in northern Michigan and has been active in spreading conspiracy theories denying the 2020 election that former President Trump lost, attending an October 2021 rally at the Michigan Capitol calling for a so-called “forensic audit.”

However, Bishop filed to run in the 37th Senate District as a Democrat.

The move has been seen as a strategy to prevent Democratic voters from crossing over to vote in the Republican primary for more moderate candidates.

Republicans face a four-way primary in the district with state Reps. Triston Cole (R-Mancelona) and John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs), as well as businessman William Hindle and Mackinaw City Village Trustee George Ranville.

The Michigan Democratic Party responded in a tweet thread Sunday, saying they will not support Bishop’s campaign and “find it deeply insulting that he would dare to put a “D” next to his name.

“Views such as the ones Trucker Randy Bishop espouses have no place in the Democratic Party. Candidates who say or believe these things are not welcome. Randy Bishop is not a Democrat,” the party wrote. “He is a dishonest minor social media personality that enjoys getting attention from making outrageous statements. He shows nothing but disrespect to our system of government by using a run for office to promote his personal agenda, entirely based on lies, hate and fear. Disgusting racist belief systems are not welcome in the Democratic Party and frankly should not be welcome in any political party or community.” 

State Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor), who is Black and Latinx, also slammed Bishop’s remarks on Twitter and said he was “masquerading as a Dem.”

“With dangerous views such as this, this individual masquerading as a Dem has no business anywhere near any branch or level of government or in policy making,” she wrote. “Calling for the erasure of entire families/groups of people, is another example of & in line with the backwards, heinous views & actions clinging to white supremacy that we’ve been seeing in anti-history & anti-LGBTQ bills & it’ll only get worse w/someone like this in office.”