Wife of GOP congressional candidate helped by white supremacists during mayoral campaign
The wife of a Republican congressional candidate seeking to represent a large swath of the Northwest suburbs accepted help from white supremacists when she ran for mayor last year.
Gabrielle Hanson, who’s married to 5th Congressional District hopeful Tommy Hanson of Chicago but lives in Tennessee, didn’t denounce the far-right extremists who supported her at an October candidate forum.
“If they want to support me, that is their right,” Hanson — then a Franklin alderman — said during a city board meeting. “We don’t discriminate in this community against anyone.”
Tommy Hanson is seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Chicago in the Nov. 5 election. Quigley defeated Hanson in 2018, 2020 and 2022.
In a prepared statement he issued Monday night, Tommy Hanson said he and his wife “have never knowingly associated in any way with white supremacists or Nazis and would never associate with white supremacists or Nazis.”
But Gabrielle Hanson — who ultimately lost the mayoral race and resigned from the board — publicly acknowledged one of the extremists was a real estate client.
When asked to comment on the Hansons’ ties to extremists in Tennessee, Quigley said through a campaign spokeswoman: “Certain actions speak for themselves. Associating with Nazis is one of them.”
Aaron Del Mar, the Illinois Republican Party state central committee representative for the 5th District, said he and the party vigorously denounce any hate group “and anyone who has any association with them.”
“Anybody that shares those same sets of beliefs has no business running in the 5th Congressional District or for any other office whatsoever,” Del Mar said.
Support from ‘an actual literal Nazi’
Gabrielle Hanson was elected to the Franklin board in 2021 and challenged incumbent Ken Moore for mayor last year.
During the mayoral candidate forum at Franklin City Hall, Gabrielle Hanson was publicly backed by men including Brad Lewis, who has called himself “an actual literal Nazi,” has been photographed making Nazi salutes in front of Nazi and Confederate flags and has the logo of the far-right Proud Boys tattooed on his face. At the time, Lewis said he was a friend of Hanson’s.
A different supporter at the forum previously had been filmed giving a Nazi salute during a protest outside a Tennessee drag show.
In his prepared statement, Tommy Hanson said his wife hired people to protect their family last year after receiving threats from “leftist activists.”
The men walked with the Hansons into the forum, stood outside and inside the building and said they were there to support her, according to media reports.
During a subsequent interview on the Patriot Punkcast podcast, Lewis said he’d been asked by Gabrielle Hanson to provide security at the event. But on a later episode of Patriot Punkcast, Hanson denied hiring the men or asking them to handle security.
Hanson also denied ever being associated with any white supremacy or Nazi-affiliated group. But at a city council meeting after the forum, Hanson acknowledged she was his real estate agent.
During her podcast appearance, Hanson said she didn’t see Lewis as a white supremacist or a Nazi. She called him “an absolutely great person” and a “cool guy (who) just doesn’t care what people think.”
The GOP’s Del Mar said he spoke with Tommy Hanson this week by phone about the white supremacists’ involvement in the Franklin mayoral forum and the Hansons’ apparent acceptance of their assistance.
That should disqualify Tommy and Gabrielle Hanson from ever running for office, Del Mar said.
“Tommy Hanson should give long thought to running as a Republican in the 5th Congressional District,” Del Mar said. “He’s not getting help (from the party) in this race.”
Hanson said his campaign has a “vast array of supporters from every ethnicity, culture and gender identity.”
“Their support in no way means I am like any of them,” he said Tuesday in an email. “But I greatly appreciate every one of them and respect their diversity and opinions.”
Other controversies
The white supremacists’ appearance at the forum wasn’t Gabrielle Hanson’s only controversy while in office.
Last year, she drew attention for comments about a school shooting in nearby Nashville and for criticizing Nashville International Airport’s sponsorship of a Juneteenth event.
Hanson unsuccessfully tried to block a Pride festival from being held at a Franklin park, too — more than a decade after her husband attended the 2008 Chicago Pride Parade wearing only a skimpy, patriotically colored swimsuit and sandals.
Additionally, Tennessee media last year revealed Hanson had been charged with promoting prostitution and other crimes in the 1990s in Texas.
Hanson would’ve faced a public censure from her board had she not resigned.
“We’re glad she’s in Tennessee and not in Illinois,” Del Mar said.
The 5th Congressional District cuts diagonally through Cook and Lake counties between Chicago's North Side and the Barrington area.
· The Associated Press contributed to this report.