Siblings of GOP congressman endorse his opponent in ads
Family members concerned about extremist views
It might seem like family dysfunction or a bad case of sibling rivalry.
Six of nine brothers and sisters of Rep. Paul Gosar, R-ariz., publicly endorsed his Democratic opponent in the midterm elections in videos Friday, in what one of them said was nothing short of a moral imperative.
The siblings were alarmed at what they saw as the congressman’s increasingly extremist views on immigration, health care and white supremacists, one of them, David Gosar, said Saturday.
“I’m just hoping either in this election cycle or next, the people get the idea that he’s just not fit for that office and he needs to be removed,” David Gosar said.
The Democratic candidate, Dr. David Brill, released the videos Friday, drawing astonishment at the rare public display of a family fighting over political views (though it was not the first time this year) as well as jokes about what a Gosar Thanksgiving gathering might be like.
The videos show the siblings attacking the congressman on health care and Social Security, among other issues, and expressing disdain for their brother.
Brill said there were more videos to come, though he wouldn’t specify how many.
David Gosar, a lawyer in Wyoming, identifies as a progressive, though he said he is not a registered
Democrat.
Three of the siblings have donated to Brill’s campaign, the Democratic candidate said.
Paul Gosar did not respond to requests Saturday for comment. In a 2016 Thanksgiving message posted on Facebook, he acknowledged that he and his siblings have “mixed political views.”
“I understand that we may disagree from time to time — we may even strongly disagree — but that’s what’s great about this country: Even with our differences we can agree that we live in a great nation with much to be thankful for,” he wrote.
Paul Gosar first won election in 2010, his first foray into politics, with the support of the tea party.
David Gosar caught the eye of Brill’s campaign through his criticism of Paul Gosar on Twitter. David Gosar said he keeps the Twitter account solely to publicly admonish his brother, alternately referring to him as “Wease” or “Weasel.”
David Gosar said a staff member on Brill’s campaign called him and delved deeper into the familial rift, and then asked the siblings to be in the campaign videos. Brill said the effort was “collaborative.”
“This is the Gosar siblings coming forward for the good of our country,” Brill said.
The Brill campaign said the siblings were not paid.
Paul Gosar is known as an immigration hardliner. This year, he called for authorities to check the immigration status of those attending the State of the Union address, and arresting and deporting “any illegal aliens attempting to go through security.”
Seven brothers and sisters had previously written a letter to a local Arizona newspaper, The Kingman Daily Miner, condemning Paul Gosar’s suggestion in a Vice News interview in October that the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., was backed by George Soros, the billionaire who is a donor to liberal causes.
“It kept building and building,” David Gosar said. “He’d just keep getting nuttier and nuttier.”
It wasn’t always that way. David Gosar said the 10 siblings were tight-knit growing up in a small town in Wyoming, playing sports or cards.
“It was absolutely a blast,” David Gosar said.
As the siblings moved to different parts of the country and started families of their own, they met less frequently but still talked on the phone, David Gosar said. Then Paul Gosar, the eldest sibling, started gearing up to run for Congress in 2010, and said that he believed, incorrectly, that President Barack Obama was born outside the country.
That was the last time the two of them spoke, David Gosar said. Attempts to reach Paul Gosar’s other siblings were unsuccessful.