The Rundown: Media Spins To Indict All CT Republicans
Jaden MacCormack's views are his own. Despite the media's attempt to bruise Republicans
Reese On The Radio
3 min read
The Hartford Courant wants you to believe Connecticut Republicans are in full panic mode because one 23-year-old candidate said something outrageous on the radio.
The headline screams that the party is “scrambling to replace” Jadon E. MacCormack after he called for the death penalty for “sodomites” during an appearance on WTIC’s Reese On The Radio.
On the surface, the story checks out. MacCormack, who won the GOP endorsement for the 50th House District in the Quiet Corner, went on the air and doubled down on his opposition to the LGBT movement, gender-affirming care for minors, and then took it further — saying that once like-minded legislators are in power, they should pass “harder legislation against the sodomites,” including the death penalty for homosexuality. He clarified he wasn’t calling for individuals to commit violence, but that the government should execute people who engage in gay sex. “I’m not denying it,” he said.
That’s a bridge too far for almost everyone in modern politics, including most conservatives. The Connecticut Republican Assembly’s Mark Mnich put it plainly: mercy triumphs over judgment, and we don’t need to go that far back. Party leadership — Vince Candelora, Ben Proto, Stephen Harding, even gubernatorial nominee Ryan Fazio — all told him to step aside. They’re now collecting signatures to force a primary and put Anthony Emilio, a longtime local Republican, on the ballot instead.
So the “scramble” part is real. The party is doing what responsible parties are supposed to do when a candidate becomes a liability: find a replacement before November.
But read between the lines of the Courant piece, and the real agenda becomes obvious.
This isn’t straight reporting. It’s a textbook example of how legacy media in deep-blue states like Connecticut uses loaded language and selective framing to turn a story about one fringe candidate into an indictment of the entire Republican Party.
Look at the words they chose: “hateful remarks,” “political firestorm,” “profuse condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike,” “extreme solution,” “disregard for human life.”
These aren’t neutral descriptors. They’re emotional weapons. The article treats the candidate’s Biblical language — “sodomites” is straight out of Leviticus — as self-evidently monstrous, without ever grappling with why a young homeschool graduate, Gospel singer, and Eagle Scout who worked at the Capitol might hold such a view in 2026.
The omitted context is glaring. The piece never seriously engages with the cultural conditions that produced this candidate: the explosion of gender-affirming care for minors despite growing European restrictions and detransitioner stories, the mandatory pride celebrations in schools, the redefinition of sex and family pushed by institutions, and the attacks on parents who object. MacCormack sees all of that as moral corruption. He said so on my show. The Courant reduces it to “hateful.”
They also downplay that MacCormack won the party endorsement at the district convention. Local Republicans in Brooklyn, Pomfret, and the Quiet Corner thought he was worth backing. The establishment is now overriding that because they know how this plays in a media environment that will weaponize any deviation from progressive sexual orthodoxy.
The sourcing is one-sided by design. We get quotes from every top Republican leader denouncing him and from Democrats trying to score political points. We don’t get voices from the district explaining why they endorsed him in the first place, or why his “Straight Pride Month” post resonated with some voters tired of one-sided cultural celebrations.
And the radio appearance on my program? It’s mentioned only to set up the most incendiary clip. No link to full context, no acknowledgment that he was making a broader argument about standing for “righteous” and “pure” against political correctness. Just the soundbite that fits the narrative.
This is journalistic malpractice dressed up as political reporting. The Courant knows exactly what it’s doing: in a state where Republicans are already the minority party, stories like this keep the GOP on the defensive, force endless purity tests, and make it harder to recruit candidates who aren’t perfect media-trained moderates. Meanwhile, the actual policy fights — protecting kids from medical transitions, pushing back on school curricula that treat gender confusion as celebration rather than caution — get buried under the “extremist” label.
The truth is simpler and more uncomfortable for the media narrative. Jadon MacCormack is a sincere young Christian who believes what his Bible teaches about sexuality and who sees the current cultural moment as a crisis. On that broader diagnosis, a lot of Connecticut voters in the Quiet Corner and beyond quietly agree. On the specific prescription of state-executed death penalties for private consensual acts in 2026 America, he is out on an island even most conservatives won’t visit. The party is right to move him off the ballot.
But don’t let the Courant con you into thinking this one overzealous 23-year-old represents Connecticut Republicans. The real story is that the party saw the problem and acted quickly. The media saw an opportunity to paint conservatives as theocrats and took it.
That’s the difference between reporting and reading between the headlines.