GOP Senate Candidate's Campaign Manager Advocates Doxxing Journalists, "Aryan Exams"
Update as of September 15, 2020:
On September 15, 2020, Lauren Witzke won her primary race, making her the Republican candidate in the general election.
As of July 11, 2020, Sisco was no longer working for Witzke’s campaign. He posted on his Instagram that he was “between jobs.” He did, however, celebrate her win.
Michael Sisco served as Field Director for Iowa Republican primary candidate Bobby Schilling, until he was fired in December 2019 after inviting Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and antisemite Dylan Wheeler to speak at an event alongside Schilling. Shortly after Sisco was fired, his girlfriend,* Lauren Witzke, left** her job as Trump Campaign Field Operator in Iowa. Twitter interactions between Witzke and the Trump campaign’s State Director for Iowa in November 2019 indicate that Witzke was more than a low-level staffer; she was known by the campaign’s state leadership.
In her role as Field Operator, Witzke, who had an official Iowa GOP email address, coordinated Get Out The Vote efforts on behalf of the Trump campaign, enlisting Sisco as a volunteer to help lead these efforts. During her time as an employee of the Iowa Republican Party, Witzke openly promoted QAnon conspiracies, “liked” Facebook posts from Sisco about fascist events like the Boston Straight Pride parade, organized an event with white nationalist Laura Loomer, and coordinated and attended multiple events with Dylan Wheeler. Witzke also interacted with Nick Fuentes on Twitter.
Shortly after leaving her job with the Iowa Republican Party, Witzke announced her candidacy for Senate in Delaware, challenging Democratic incumbent Chris Coons. Her campaign manager is Michael Sisco.
Sisco’s online presence shows that he has been involved in fascist movements and held white nationalist Christian supremacist views for some time. However, his affinity for Nazi ideology has only grown since being fired from the Schilling campaign and signing on to run Witzke’s campaign. On April 24, 2020, he threatens to doxx and potentially harm researchers at Media Matters and Right Wing Watch, writing, “We can give them a taste of their own medicine. Confirming residential addresses…” A few weeks later, several of the individuals mentioned in the post to which Sisco responded are placed on a neo-Nazi kill list.
Names removed for the safety of the individuals mentioned.
Michael Sisco jokes about his score on a neo-Nazi account’s “Aryan Exam” test.
Sisco appears to at least partially run Witzke’s Twitter account, which he uses to promote white nationalist accounts that share quotes from Hungary’s antisemitic and authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán:
*It is unclear when Witzke and Sisco stpped dating. A livestreamed video from September 7, 2019, on a now-deactivated Facebook Page Sisco ran shows him telling friends that he is moving from Maryland to Iowa in part for Witzke, presumably when she moved there for her job with the Iowa GOP. As of Janury 15, 2020, Sisco appeared to have an account on a dating app. On that account, he listed his profession as Witzke’s campaign manager.
**It is also unclear if Witzke was fired or voluntarily left her position at the Iowa GOP.