In 2022, 5,000 voters, angry about Covid-era health restrictions, ousted a moderate Republican official in Shasta county, California. The vote helped put the rural region, in the state’s north, on the map for extremist far-right politics.
In the two years since, the ultra-conservative majority that controls the county’s governing board has attempted to upend the voting system and spread conspiracy theories that elections were being rigged. They moved to allow people to carry firearms in public buildings in violation of state law and offered the county’s top job to the leader of a California secessionist group.
Now, residents frustrated by the county’s recent governance hope another recall will force a change. They’re aiming to oust Kevin Crye, a far-right county supervisor who has been in office for just a year.
The election could be a turning point for the county, said Jeff Gorder, a spokesperson for the recall group and retired county public defender.
“We’re seeing an extreme agenda coming here that we don’t think people want,” he said. “The [far-right supervisors] see themselves as having the ability to disregard laws that have been enacted by the state. They’re taking it upon themselves to disregard the normal workings of the rule of law.”
Shasta has long been one of California’s most conservative counties, but it became a hotbed for far-right politics during the pandemic as residents raged at moderate Republicans they felt weren’t doing enough to resist state health rules.
The anger grew into a thriving anti-establishment movement that – with unprecedented outside funding from a Connecticut millionaire and support from local militia – targeted the board of supervisors. In February 2022, voters recalled Leonard Moty, a retired police chief and Republican, from his role as a county supervisor, a move that gave the far right effective control over the board of supervisors. The body of five elected officials oversees the county as well as its roughly 2,000 workers and nearly $600m budget.
Crye was voted into office in November of that year, beating a moderate candidate by less than 100 votes. He pledged to unite the county and tackle government corruption.
Weeks after taking office, Crye, along with the rest of the board’s hard-right majority, voted to cut ties with Dominion Voting Systems, the company at the center of baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud. The county embarked on an ill-fated and costly effort to do away with its voting machines – before establishing a replacement – and to craft a hand-count system.
The move drew national attention to the region, bringing in support from key figures in the election denial movement while offering a blueprint for them on how to advance their agenda across the US.
Crye was an enthusiastic supporter, even traveling on the county’s dime to meet with Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow and one of the leading promoters of falsehoods about election fraud. Lindell said he would offer financial and legal support to the county if it faced lawsuits as it enacted its hand-counting plan.
The supervisors continued creating controversy. In March, the board majority made a preliminary offer for its top job, the role of chief executive, to the vice-president of a group that advocates for rural California to split off and become the 51st state. The board ultimately withdrew its offer.
“There was a tidal wave of bad decisions,” said Gorder, the spokesperson for the recall group.
In the spring, Gorder and a group of about 50 residents gathered to decide how to push back against the county board. They decided on a tried and true route in Shasta county: a recall.
“He’s doing things he said he wouldn’t do. He violated his campaign promises. He wasn’t listening to his constituents,” Gorder said. “We took it very seriously. He was freely and fairly elected. But a recall, in our view, is appropriate when someone misrepresents who they are.”
The group gathered signatures from roughly 5,000 voters in the area Crye represents. The county’s election office certified the signatures in September, moving the recall forward.
Crye and his supporters have criticized the recall as an attempt by Democrats to override the will of the voters, describing it on an anti-recall website as “Gavin Newsom’s attempt to control Shasta county” and pointing to the fact that California’s Democratic governor could pick a replacement for Crye. (Newsom could pick Crye’s temporary replacement if voters opt to remove him from office. He has done so in some cases, but other times left seats vacant. The recall committee sent a letter to the governor, which was also signed by a moderate county supervisor and local business leaders, asking him not to appoint a replacement.)
In an interview with One America News, a far-right media outlet, Crye said: “You have Democrats in a very red county that are trying to usurp local control and the vote of the people here in Shasta county to get me out of office. They are lying and saying anything under the sun they can to get people to jump on.”
Crye said in his official response to the recall that as supervisor he had prioritized “awareness of homelessness” and public safety and sought to protect youth.
Crye did not respond to a request for comment.
Outside far-right figures including Kari Lake, a Donald Trump ally who unsuccessfully ran for governor in Arizona, have urged Shasta residents to vote no on the recall.
Gorder said the pro-recall group includes Democrats, Republicans and independent voters frustrated by decisions they say are at odds with the image Crye presented while running for office. For example, Gorder said, Crye said he valued fiscal responsibility but risked the county paying millions of dollars in expenses to replace its voting system with a hand-count system.
Gorder is hopeful the recall will be successful, but he pointed out that Crye’s campaign is well-funded. Crye has the support of Reverge Anselmo, a Connecticut millionaire who has funded the area’s far-right movement. He’s donated $2m in Shasta county since 2020, the Redding Record Searchlight reported, including $250,000 to a political action committee supporting Crye. Still, the recall group has raised enough money – $306,000 as of Thursday – to pose a formidable challenge.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm here,” Gorder said. “We’ve had a tremendous amount of support and I’m hoping that will show itself at the polls.”
