10 June—On the 197^th anniversary of the first of 170 Oxford-Cambridge boat races (which Oxford won and don’t ask), let’s give 50^th Connecticut House district Republican candidate Jadon MacCormack his due, even though he’s never rowed for nor probably even visited either university in his 23 years.

First, Connecticut underwent its most recent statewide gerrymander, euphemized as redistricting, in 2021, which, however, doesn’t mean all that much in the circumstance. For the record, though, the 50^th House district in the aptly named Quiet Corner has been rather malleable; at the moment it comprises the quiet towns or gerrymandered parts of Ashford, Brooklyn, Woodstock, Eastford, Hampton, and Pomfret. Part of Mansfield also is in the 50^th, but not Storrs, the village in Mansfield that’s home to UConn’s main campus, best known for its other-than-quiet parties.

Also for the record, as far as is known, Jadon MacCormack has never attended UConn or any other university. Evidently he’s been too busy.

The 50^th House regularly switches CGA party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and has been represented by Democrat Pat Boyd (a school administrator only a year shy of twice Jadon’s age, damn kids) since 2017. Pat ran unopposed in 2020 and 2024 and was running unopposed this year until Jadon snatched the GOP nomination unopposed. Easy move. Good move for an aspiring pol. But not acceptable to Connecticut Republicans.

So Connecticut Republicans in their infinite hypocritical wokeness easily collected about 100 signatures more than the 238 required to get a less unwoke candidate than Jadon to challenge him in an August party primary. Totally wasted effort, to be sure, typical of Connecticut Republicans. Because Jadon was bound to lose to Pat anyway and the good-soldier candidate the hypocrites have been able to comb out of the woodwork, who will probably win the primary, is also bound to lose the general to Pat.

But at least Connecticut Republicans will have kept up the appearance of keeping up appearances.

Back to Jadon MacCormack, then, when you bother to go to his website, jadonforthe50th.com, you see that the kid, who looks like a yeshiva student on furlough, is a conventional political candidate with vague plans and promises. What you don’t see on Jadon’s website is this:

And it’s Jadon’s blatantly, unashamedly anti-gay rhetoric which would impress bigoted warlord Pete Hegseth that has given Connecticut Republicans apoplexy. God forbid they should be shown to be what they are. And Jadon’s ad doesn’t say it all. Last week, Jadon declared on a conservative AM radio program (is there anything else on AM radio?): “If you’re a sodomite, you should get the death penalty. Simple as that.” Repeat: “If you’re a sodomite, you should get the death penalty.” Is that straight talk or is that straight talk? Sodomite? You hope that Jadon is yanking someone’s chain.

Before you condemn Jadon, though, consider where he’s coming from. He really is a published author. Of “Pastor Steven L. Anderson: The Life, Ministry, and Legacy of a Soul Winner,” a blatantly hagiographic biography of a Fundamental Baptist preacher half a year younger than Pat Boyd, damn kids, published by Amazon digitally and in paper on demand. (Brings to mind “The Works of Max Beerbohm,” published in 1896 when Max was 24, ending with “Cede junioribus,” “Yield to the younger.”) This is what the Amazon blurb tells us about Jadon:

“Jadon MacCormack is a passionate soul-winner, KJV-only Christian, gospel singer, and devoted servant of Christ from Connecticut. Proclaiming salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, he urges believers to fulfill the Great Commission [JC’s final instruction to his followers] with urgency and joy.”

So it turns out that Jadon MacCormack is a fundamentalist, in other words a Christian Taliban. So he can’t help himself—even though Jesus surely wouldn’t approve. But to his credit, Jadon is a KJV-only Christian, for whom it’s the King James Version or bust. And he’s got a winning point there, because there is only one real, authentic, genuine version of the Bible. So nobody is totally imperfect.

Now you can condemn Jadon . . .