This is two of three articles in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Shasta County, a region of 180,000 people in Northern California that is the epicenter of the election denial movement and has emerged as a hotbed of far-right politics. It’s the eyes. Read the first one here.
Tim Garman is concerned about Shasta County. His community is in the midst of a dizzying slide toward the far right, garnering national attention for its unruly extremist politics and full-throated support of election conspiracy theories.
Garman knows all too well. As an elected official on the county Board of Supervisors, he has seen firsthand the hostility and vitriol that have become a normal part of public life. The region faces real problems, including California’s highest suicide rate, lack of mental health care, and rising homelessness, but political agendas often revolve around fighting the state and attempting to reshape voting systems. has been focused on.
“It’s disgusting how much time we’re wasting,” Garman lamented in an interview earlier this year.
Ahead of an important and contentious election, we see events in Shasta as a case study in how extremist politics can divide and corrupt communities and cause local government dysfunction. I can. The county has become a model for purveyors of voting disinformation across the country. Whether Shasta can resist these efforts will also be a lesson.
“Old-school Republicans are rising up and pushing back against the far-right’s emphasis on conspiracy theories,” said Lisa Pruitt, a rural law expert at the University of California, Davis. “The question is whether they will be successful.”
Two years ago, no one would have expected Garman to be among them. He was elected to Congress in 2022 when the county ousted its longtime moderate Republican leadership, an effort promoted and praised by the region’s far right. At the time, Garman was the head of a local school board that opposed vaccination and mask mandates and had the backing of ultra-conservatives and militia groups.
But Garman changed his tune, earning him the scorn of some of his early supporters. He voted against the proposal when supervisors, who falsely claimed the election was rigged, moved to remove the county’s voting machines and replace them with a hand-counting system. He then publicly supported the recall of his far-right colleagues.
“The people who supported me when I ran for superintendent probably wouldn’t have supported me if they had looked into me a little bit more,” he said in April. “If I had looked into them a little more, I never would have wanted their help.”
SHasta County was preparing for change in 2022. The region has been in turmoil during the pandemic, with residents frustrated by school and business closures and what they see as state missteps and overreach. The unrest was part of a growing wave of unrest and political extremism across the country, manifested in unruly school board and city council meetings and threats against officials.
But in Shasta it was especially acute. The coronavirus and the resulting backlash have ignited this longtime conservative stronghold and emboldened the county’s most radical factions, militias and separatists.
Residents were directing their anger at the most accessible target: the county Board of Supervisors. Elected officials say they have received death threats privately and at public meetings from residents who warn that “the ropes are reusable” and that people “won’t have peace for much longer.” I received it.
With the help of a wealthy Connecticut heiress who harbored a long-standing grudge against the county for funneling money to the growing anti-establishment movement, residents organized a recall of the county supervisor. Leonard Moty was a moderate Republican with decades of experience when he suddenly realized he was no longer a conservative. sufficient.
Recall organizers accused Moti of “betraying the public’s trust” by not resisting COVID-19 restrictions, saying he supplied county voting equipment vilified by Donald Trump. He suggested that the company had been acquired by Dominion Voting Systems.
Garman, chairman of the Happy Valley Union School District Board, arrived. Mr. Garman served on the school board for six years. He worked as a roofer by trade until a knee injury abruptly cut short his career, but he developed an interest in public service. The father of five and his wife started a local diabetes support group (two of his daughters have type 1 diabetes) and eventually sought public office.
He told the Guardian that his conservative stance resonates with people calling for change. He said the school board he served on was one of the first to oppose the idea of requiring vaccinations for students.
Garman opposes vaccination and mask regulations, saying on his campaign website that he believes in “local control, personal choice rather than mandates, and constitutional freedoms,” local media outlet News Café reported. .
The recall gains momentum and divides communities between those who want to abolish traditional politics and officials who defy state and federal laws and those who fear new radical groups seeking power. rapidly became more radical.
At the time of his candidacy, he denied claims of a far-right takeover and told the Sacramento Bee that the recall was initiated by a group of mothers, not extremists. Still, he vowed to represent all residents, including those opposed to the recall effort.
Once elected, he voted with far-right allies to fire County Health Officer Karen Ramstrom. Ramstrom was in charge of the county’s COVID-19 response and had faced threats from angry residents for following the state’s pandemic rules.
But Garman said something happened about six months into his term that changed his perspective. A public speaker for the board came and openly expressed racism. “I was devastated by the hate and racism coming out of her mouth.
“I didn’t understand the level of hatred behind these people, the amount of racism that exists out there,” he said. “They’re just mean people, and that’s not me.”
It won’t be the last time — last year, a man uttered a racial slur during public comment and was allowed to remain in the chamber while a black man who protested was escorted out, the Reading Record Searchlight reported. .
Garman became a floating vote as far-right groups gained more seats on the board. He increasingly sided with Mary Rickert, the only moderate leftist on the board.
When the Board of Supervisors ordered Dominion to sever ties without a replacement and create a hand-count system, Garman voted against it.
Conservatives in the county appear to be eager to pick a fight with California’s Democratic government, but Garman was skeptical of such an approach. “There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things, and if it violates the law, it’s the wrong way.”
He fell out with conservatives over the hiring of new health workers and was criticized by colleagues. “I have the right to vote the way I want, and they are not going to force me to change my mind,” he said at the October 2023 meeting. “I’m not just working for one person here or one person over there. I’m working for the entire county.”
He also defended the former registrar of voters and his office, which the majority of the board frequently demonized. Garman said he visited his office after becoming supervisor and looked into the issues people were concerned about, but couldn’t find anything.
DDepending on who you ask in Shasta County, Garman is either a turncoat or a man of ethics who seeks to make decisions that are best for the county he represents. Garman’s vote encouraged some moderates and liberals who had been frustrated by the board’s far-right move, but some observers were skeptical.
“He cast a pretty bad vote,” said Doni Chamberlain, editor of the local News Café newspaper. But Chamberlain, who regularly chronicles the county’s tumultuous politics, said he changed his mind along the way. “(But) I think he has a conscience.”
The ultra-conservatives who initially supported him were not happy. One person described him as “the biggest disappointment” they had ever seen. “You tell people one thing and then you do something else,” Terry Rapoza, a former Garman supporter, said at a public meeting in 2023. “We can’t accept this anymore. I think so, Tim.”
Mr. Garman reported receiving threats. But in his view, his decision-making hasn’t changed, his early supporters just didn’t know him. “All of my decisions are well-considered, well-researched and, in my opinion, the best on behalf of the county. No one is going to sway my vote.”
Robert Sid, a Shasta County conservative and political observer, said those who supported Garman didn’t vet the candidate enough and didn’t support Garman because he opposed his COVID-19 policies. I guessed that. “They thought he would side with Jones. I think he let them down.”
Garman admits he is at odds with the majority of the board. Last summer, conservatives blasted him for wearing a shirt supporting the recall of fellow Supervisor Kevin Klei.
Although Klei managed to hold on to his seat, Garman still saw “huge changes” afoot in Shasta County. Jones has been “blown out of the water,” he said, saying voters are tired of dysfunctional local government and bullying from officials.
Mr. Garman is also retiring. Due to redistricting in the county, he will no longer be eligible to hold his current seat and will have to wait until 2026 to run instead. Even without the support of those who initially supported him, he hopes he has a chance and believes Shasta will win. Towards a more stable future.
“The people of Shasta County are saying enough is enough,” he said.
