Everything You’ve Heard About John Gibbs’ Anti-Women Screed Is True

This week, CNN broke the story of a “think tank” started by John Gibbs in the early 2000s, called the Society for the Critique of Feminism. Gibbs is the Republican candidate running to represent the Grand Rapids, Muskegon, and Grand Haven areas—also known as Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District—in Congress. His opponent is Democrat Hillary Scholten.

On the site, Gibbs argues against not just the feminist movement, but against women’s rights in general. Below are some excerpts, but trust us, it gets worse.

You may remember that in August, Gibbs beat incumbent Republican Peter Meijer in the state primary. Meijer’s great-grandfather was Hendrik Meijer, who started the Meijer supermarket chain, and the Grand Rapids native is well-known in the 3rd Congressional District. The primary loss surprised many traditional Republicans, whose party has controlled the district—once represented by President Gerald Ford—for 142 of the past 167 years. 

READ MORE: Meet John Gibbs: The Trump Republican Who Took Down Peter Meijer

Gibbs is a Lansing native who was a software engineer for the evangelical Christian ministry WorldVenture, along with other groups like Apple, Palm, and Symantec. He made a name for himself by writing on social media and extreme-right websites about his belief that federal employees should be loyal to President Trump, about conspiracy theories connecting members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff to satanic rituals, and attacking moderate Republicans as “cucks.”

In 2017, he was appointed to serve in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development under then-Secretary Ben Carson. Gibbs had no experience in the field at the time of his appointment. In 2020, Trump chose Gibbs to head the Office of Personnel Management—but opposition from major associations and unions, along with bipartisan concerns aired in his confirmation hearing, led to a pause on his confirmation until the end of the Trump administration.

In the fall of 2021, Gibbs announced his run for Congress. A few days later, he received Trump’s endorsement.