‘The most serious troll you’ll ever meet’

“The Furries Are Coming For Me…” reads the subject line of a campaign email sent out two weeks ago by Tom Barrett, the Charlotte Republican currently representing Michigan’s 7th congressional district.

The “furry” in question is Samuel “Elyon Badger” Smeltzer, a long-shot congressional candidate known for appearing at political rallies in a marijuana-patterned suit topped with a honey badger head.

But Smeltzer, once a sort of local cryptid, has experienced a burst of mainstream attention after a slew of articles from outlets like the Daily Caller and New York Post, and a segment on Sean Hannity, brought attention to his eccentric, inflammatory campaign.

Looking at his quirky costume and inflammatory social media posts, it’s easy to assume Smeltzer tossed his marijuana leaf-patterned top hat in the ring for the attention rather than the policy.

But from speaking with Smeltzer on a walk through the Fenner Nature Center, it’s clear the Lansing resident, Michigan National Guard veteran and lifelong Michigander is as serious as can be.

“This game has been turned into a joke, and if you want to win in the circus of madness, you’ve got to be the best goddamn clown in the show,” he said.

Dressed in a purple suit that evoked images of Willy Wonka and Jack Nicholson’s Joker, with his spouse following behind carrying his badger head in case of photos, the MI-7 candidate excoriated the U.S. healthcare system.

“When I go to the pharmacy to pick up my medicine, and I see the pharmacist tell the old man in front of me, ‘Oh, that’ll be $120’ — it’s just, holy moly,” he said. “Imagine paying to live in a country your whole life through taxation, with barely an ounce of representation, and then at the end of it you can’t even afford your medicine to enjoy your sunset years.”

Advocacy for universal healthcare is at the core of Smeltzer’s campaign, something he hopes to achieve through a constitutional amendment. He said the focus came from his childhood in Wolverine, a village in Cheboygan County with about 300 residents, where he was raised Baptist.

“So I was eight years old, serving soup to homeless people, singing songs at the Cheboygan retirement home every Christmas, and then later on when I say, ‘Why don’t we have healthcare?” violent anger spouts,” he said.

Smeltzer, an IT contractor and car flipper, first became known at local pro-marijuana events as “President Weed.” He said he first purchased his then-undersized weed suit as an incentive to lose weight and overcome alcoholism. In learning to use his anger productively, he said, he found his “honey badger energy.”

Despite raising nearly $4,000 for his current campaign, Smeltzer actually encourages supporters on social media not to donate, but to spread the message instead.

“My entire strategy from the start has been telling voters, ‘I don’t want you to donate any more, I want you to spread the message about healthcare,” he said.

Smeltzer’s disdain for campaign ads that beg for donations has brought him into conflict with fellow MI-7 candidate Will Lawrence, who Smeltzer critiqued for asking for money in ads before providing a platform.

Smeltzer said Lawrence sought his advice for running the social media end of a campaign before announcing, then told Smeltzer he should reconsider running without guaranteed funding sources. Smeltzer has over 80,000 followers on TikTok, with videos garnering as many as 5 million views.

“I told him, if you want to win voters over, you tell them what you are going to do to make their life better,” he said. “You don’t just say, ‘Give me $5 so I can beat Trump.’

Sitting in his van to warm up after a cold-weather photoshoot, Smeltzer pulled up a campaign ad from Lawrence in which he announces his intention to run for Congress to “stop the Trump agenda” and asks for money.

Then, Smeltzer played his own video, in which he stands before Lansing’s iconic trio of smokestacks.

“Hi there, I’m an establishment Democratic candidate, and instead of making sure your family can afford food this Thanksgiving, I’m spending your donation money to ask you for more donation money,” Smeltzer says.

“By donating today, you can be sure that this same ad scrolls across your feed five times in a row,” he continues. “Thank you for voting establishment. Fuck you, you are never getting healthcare.”

It’s unclear whether Smeltzer can garner the 1,000 signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot — or even whether “Samuel (Elyon) Smeltzer (Badger),” the name he filed to run under, qualifies as a “recognized diminutive” of his name under Michigan election law. A spokesperson for the state department declined to comment on Smeltzer’s eligibility.

But it is clear that the “gay furry socialist,” as the Daily Caller called him, is using the media attention as a path to genuine advocacy.

“At the end of the day, judge me by my haters,” Smeltzer said. “Their boos mean nothing to me, because I’ve seen what makes them cheer.”

— LEO V. KAPLAN