#2701: James Comer

James Comer is a US congressman representing Kentucky’s 1st congressional district in the US House of Representatives, and an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Kentucky in 2015. And though Comer is for the most part what you’d expect from a conservative representative from Kentucky (repeal Obamacare, opposition to gay marriage), we have to take a special look at Kentucky gubernatorial candidates given that Kentucky is also home to Ken Ham’s Creation Museum and Ark Park, and Kentucky gubernatorial candidates tend to have views on that. And Comer has views on that, for instance supporting tax rebates for the ‘museum’ despite the museum’s declared intention to use religious discrimination in their hiring processes.

 

To most people, however, Comer is probably best known for his explicitly partisan work as chair of the Oversight Committee from 2023, which has been controversial. He is also known for pushing various bogus accusations of voter fraud and election integrity violations in connection with the 2020 election, and for criticizing investigations into the January 6^th insurrection as “illegitimate”, trying to suggest that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was really responsible. But Comer is also a climate change denialist of the densest kind; as he put it, “I do not believe in global warming. I'm the one person whose business and livelihood depends on Mother Nature, so I understand weather patterns. We've had a very severe winter this year with 12-inch snows, so there is no global warming.” Yeah, that weather-climate distinction: it’s not a particularly sophisticated distinction, but Comer is not a particularly sophisticated thinker; fortunately for him, neither are a large part of Kentucky voters.

 

Diagnosis: Conspiracy theorist and ardent science denialist. In the current political climate, there is perhaps nothing unusual or unexpected about Comer and his views, but you should really stop and think for a moment about how insane they are.