Joe Gervais has returned to the political stage. The extremely unsuccessful 2022 Republican candidate for a House seat in and around Manchester is now running for state Senate in Bennington County. Two years ago in this space, I covered the extreme views ineptly concealed behind a façade of common sense conservatism, such as election denialism, Covid conspiratorialism, and belief in the thoroughly debunked canard that vaccines cause autism.
But that was a mere appetizer for the main course we have on today’s menu. Gervais is once again running as a fiscally conservative Republican of the kind that would make Phil Scott proud… but he made the cardinal mistake of revealing his true self in a blog on Substack called “Vermont Musings.”
And boy, are his views ever extreme. Among the most extreme I’ve seen in Vermont politics, and that includes the likes of Art Peterson, Gregory Thayer, and John Klar.
Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
In truth, Gervais doesn’t stand much of a chance in the two-seat Bennington district, which last elected a Republican in 2004. Perhaps he sees light at the end of the tunnel because both incumbents are not on the ballot — Brian Campion via retirement, and Dick Sears via the pearly gates. This is the first time since 2014 that Campion and Sears aren’t on the ballot — and before then, it was Sears and the immovable object d/b/a Bob Hartwell. It’s been a while since the Democrats lacked the advantage of incumbency. The Dem candidates are state Rep. Seth Bongartz of Manchester and Bennington County deputy state’s attorney Robert Plunkett, who’ve been running as a tag team since before the primary. I doubt that they’re in any jeopardy from the likes of Gervais, but just in case, let’s tear away his flimsy veil of normalcy.
Gervais launched his Substack in 2023. He has only posted one piece this year, and that was his Senate candidacy announcement. The 2023 posts are a dense, rich source of the cray-cray — far too much for me to cover in this post. Just to let you know what we’re dealing with, here are some of the sources cited by Gervais: The Epoch Times, FlashPoint, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Tucker Carlson, and Kari Lake. He accuses the mainstream media of covering up the truth about QAnon, Pizzagate, and ““the sex crimes and criminal corruption of the current President and his family.” This sentence represents Peak Gervais:
In recent interviews with Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, Robert F. Kennedy suggests that there may be environmental factors for transgenderism linked to the use of atrazine in our food supply.
Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.
Gervais has a real bug in his bonnet about gender identity. The apotheosis of wingnut crankery came in a June 1, 2023 post entitled “The Not So Silent Assault on Vermont Children,” which asserts that the Democratic Legislature is enacting “a radical Marxist agenda that supports death and destruction.”
You think I’m kidding?
According to Gervais, the reproductive rights amendment, Article 22, “enshrine[d] death and destruction in the Vermont Constitution.” He connects the Legislature with global Marxism as embodied by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and United Nations Agenda 2030, which outlines a path to sustainable development but is seen as part of a vast conspiracy by the Joe Gervaises of the world. This includes “national Marxist efforts being pushed by the current administration” and the Vermont Legislature’s passage of pro-death measures like Article 22, death with dignity, and even the expansion of child care which, per Gervais, is “directly aligned with efforts to groom children from birth for pedophilia” that ties into public schools’ efforts to “normalize demonic activity.”
Speaking of demonic, “A word search within the statement PRIDE MONTH finds the word DEMON right in the middle staring right at us.” (Boldface is Gervais’, just in case you didn’t get the point.)
And of course Gervais is all het up about S.37, now Act 15, which protects the right to reproductive and gender-affirming health care. The latter, in Gervais’ imagination, amounts to the “sterilization and mutilation of children.”
There’s more, much more, including a four-part series on ballot insecurity and the Democrats’ plot to eliminate democracy. But I already feel the need to take a long bath in a vat of Purell. So if you feel the need to learn more, you go right ahead.
As far as I can tell, Gov. Phil Scott has not yet stooped to endorsing Joe Gervais. Maybe there are limits with the governor’s willingness to make common cause with ultraconservatives. Let’s hope so, but there’s still time for him to make a pilgrimage to Bennington County and get his picture taken with this loon.
Usual disclaimer: Gervais has every right to run for office. If you share his worldview, please feel free to vote for him. But he should be transparent with the voters about his beliefs and his motivation for seeking elective office. Don’t be fooled into thinking that a vote for Joe Gervais is a vote for Phil Scott-style Republicanism.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
“In recent interviews with Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, Robert F. Kennedy suggests that there may be environmental factors for transgenderism linked to the use of atrazine in our food supply.”
I get the “guilt by association” concept, but did you “fact-check” this particular statement?
Because if you went to mainstream health research, you would find that Atrazine has been linked to endocrine disruption, especially in frogs. (It’s also been linked–for decades–to various cancers.)
There’s so much more I could say about environmental toxins and their impacts on human health and related corruption of corporate money on research and “Public Relations.”
But the main focus of your story is about the “danger” (or likelihood) of some extreme Republicans being elected in Vermont. I share that concern and wish you’d be more careful with the reasons you cite.
It was bad enough to dip into that cesspit. I didn’t fact check all his loony assertions. Sorry.
I will say this. Whether or not there’s any link, the fact is that RFK Jr. and people like Gervais are weaponizing it to argue that transgender people don’t really exist. That’s dangerous and I won’t stand for it.
“I didn’t fact check all his loony assertions” and “the fact is that RFK Jr. and people like Gervais are…”
I can’t tell you about Gervais–perhaps that is his motivation. Perhaps.
Have you ever really listened to RFK, Jr. ? (Just to be clear, I do NOT agree with everything he says & does–especially him taking up with the national GOP candidate.)
Many of what you characterize as “loony assertions” have been proven to be accurate. It’s easy to characterize, just like it’s easy for high-powered PR campaigns to “take down” political personalities; and it is far more difficult to do the fact-checking work.
Most of the time I appreciate your use of “characterizations” to get a point across. In this case, I feel like it is both unfair to claim that you know what RFK. Jr/’s motives are, especially when he has consistently met a huge number of “mischaracterizations” by insistently declaring that people do not know for certain about health consequences until the research has been done. In his case, he’s talking about wide ranging medical research.
You do a huge disservice to promote information based–not on research or facts–but only on your own assertions (–people can characterize them however they choose. Me? I would say they’re unfair and divisive).
Think about it.
You are one of very few Vermont media “spokespersons” willing to stand up publicly to the more powerful in Vermont when they operate in dangerous lockstep and/or develop public policy that is more apt to harm than to help. We need more of this, rather than less; people need to know you’re looking into the facts of the matter before you spout off.
Sorry, I think RFK Jr went round the twist quite a while ago. His endorsement of Trump was the icing on the crazy cake.