Scott Presler | |
|---|---|
 Presler in 2026 | |
| Born | Scott Ryan Presler (1988-05-15)May 15, 1988 (age 37) Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. |
| Education | George Mason University (BA) |
| Occupation | Political activist |
| Years active | 2015–present |
| Political party | Republican |
Scott Ryan Presler (born May 15, 1988) is an Americanconservative activist. Briefly an organizer for theRepublican Party of Virginia before the2016 U.S. elections, Presler came to prominence as coordinator of the "March Against Sharia" events organized byanti-Muslim advocacy groupACT for America.[1][2]
Presler was a participant, and sometimes a speaker or organizer, in the "Stop the Steal" protests promoting the false claim that widespreadelectoral fraud allowed former vice presidentJoe Biden to win the2020 U.S. presidential election against incumbentDonald Trump.[3][4][5]
Scott Ryan Presler was born inJacksonville, Florida,[6] on May 15, 1988.[2][7][8][9] The son of aUnited States Navy captain,[10] Presler was raised in Florida andFairfax County, Virginia, and had lived inVirginia Beach for around a year by 2016.[11] Presler earned a degree incriminal justice fromGeorge Mason University.[11] When interviewed byThe Virginian-Pilot in 2016, Presler said that he hadcome out as gay in June that year following theshooting at the Pulse gay nightclub inOrlando, Florida, in which 49 people were killed.[11]
Politico Playbook reported in January 2023 that, according to three of the publication's sources, Presler's work with the Republican Party of Virginia in 2016 ended in August after he "engaged in sexual activity inside a Virginia Beach office the RNC shared with the state party – and posted explicit pictures of the encounter onCraigslist."[12][13][14]
Presler was employed as a regional field director for theRepublican Party of Virginia in 2015 and 2016.[2] With other Trump supporters, Presler constructed a small political display in Virginia Beach that was featured inThe Virginian-Pilot.[15] He also attendedNorfolk's PrideFest, an LGBT festival, later that year with Republican Party officials.[11]Politico Playbook reported in January 2023 that, according to three of the publication's sources, Presler's work with the Republican Party of Virginia in 2016 ended after he posted explicit pictures on Craigslist of a sexual encounter he had in an office shared by the Republican Party of Virginia and the RNC.[12][13]
Presler co-founded the LGBTQ coalitionGays for Trump,[10][16] and was reported to be its chairman in 2017.[17]
Presler was present at the Gays for TrumpDeploraBall held in Maryland after theinauguration of Trump as president on January 20, 2017,[17] and led the Virginia branch of the nationwideMarch 4 Trump later that March.[16]
In a 2017Washington Post interview, Presler said he was motivated to become a volunteer foranti-Muslim advocacy groupACT for America that year after hearing its founder,Brigitte Gabriel, speak. He volunteered for ACT for America for three months,[2]
In June 2017, Presler was reported to be the coordinator of the "March Against Sharia" events organized by ACT for America in various states,[1][18] as part of thecounter-jihad movement.[19] According to theSouthern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization, the marches "attracted various factions of the radical right, includingwhite nationalists,neo-Nazis and antigovernment extremists" that were all "united by anti-Muslim animus."[18] Presler organized a local offshoot of the March Against Sharia inPortland, Oregon, that month, which he later cancelled, citing Portland mayorTed Wheeler's request for theGeneral Services Administration (GSA) to not issue a permit for Presler's event to occur at a park across from thePortland City Hall.[7][20] A march on the same date inSeattle, Washington, was organized by Presler soon after.[21][22]
Prior to the2017 Virginia gubernatorial election, Republican Party candidateEd Gillespie requested and received an endorsement from Presler, as Presler was at that time the vice chairman of the Virginia Beach Young Republicans and a volunteer for Gillespie's campaign.[2] A spokesperson of Gillespie toldThe Washington Post that he was not aware of Presler's involvement with ACT for America; Gillespie's campaign did not denounce Presler's endorsement.[2]
According to a 2021 report byMedia Matters for America, a left-leaningmedia watchdog, Presler promoted theQAnon conspiracy theory and political movement by usinghashtags in dozens of posts onInstagram in 2018 and 2019.[23][3][24][25]
In April 2019, Presler held an activism workshop in the town ofKent, Connecticut, for theConnecticut Republican Party in preparation for the2020 elections.[26][27] A protest of Presler's event was organized by the Kent Democratic Town Committee after it failed to have his event canceled.[27][28]
Presler organized a smallclean-up event inBaltimore, Maryland, through social media the month after President Trump's tweets in July 2019 which described thecongressional district represented by Democratic Party congressmanElijah Cummings as a "rodent infested mess".[29] The event was attended by more than 100 volunteers and resulted in 29 tons of trash cleaned from streets.[30] Another event in Los Angeles, California, organized by Presler involved dozens of volunteers.[30][31] In December, Presler was advertised as appearing alongside activist Dylan Wheeler at an immigration-focused event inBettendorf, Iowa, hosted by theScott County Teenage Republicans; the event concluded with a speech bywhite supremacist political commentatorNick Fuentes.[32][33]
In 2020, Presler continued to be involved in events in support of President Trump'sre-election campaign.[34][35][36] On November 5, 2020, two days after polls had closed but before the election's winner had been determined, Presler led a two-day "Stop the Steal" demonstration at thePennsylvania State Capitol inHarrisburg attended by around 100 Trump supporters.[3][37][38] A week after the victory of the Democratic Party candidateJoe Biden in the election, Presler was involved in apro-Trump demonstration in downtown Washington, D.C.[4] Later that month, he spoke at a "Stop the Steal" rally at theGeorgia State Capitol.[5]
Presler attended the"Save America" rally on January 6, 2021, that preceded theattack on the United States Capitol.[39][40][23] Presler posted a video of himself near the Capitol that day in which he described the events that day as the "largest civil rights protest in American history."[41][42]
Presler was a speaker at the2021 Conservative Political Action Conference held inOrlando, Florida, in February 2021.[43] According to 2023 reporting byNewsday, in May 2021, Presler became thebrand ambassador for Rise NY PAC, apolitical action committee operated by the sister of New York congressional candidateGeorge Santos following hisunsuccessful run for Congress in 2020.[44][45]
Presler was scheduled to appear at a Republican Partyvoter registration event in the town ofWilton, inUpstate New York, on August 25, 2021.[39] The event was sponsored by theSaratoga County Republican Committee, and House RepresentativeElise Stefanik,[40][23] who promoted Presler's appearance on Twitter.[39] Stefanik and the county Republican Party were criticized by Democratic Party officials fromher congressional district, who urged them to renounce Presler, but in response the Republican Party county chairman claimed the Democrats wanted to divert attention from their political failures.[40][23] Stefanik later deleted her tweet and Presler ultimately canceled his appearance due to a Rise NY staff member contractingCOVID-19.[46][47]
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In December 2022, Presler was involved inget-out-the-vote efforts during therunoff election in theU.S. Senate election in Georgia.[48] Later in December,Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer andRepublican National Committee (RNC) committee member, announced her candidacy in the2023 RNC chairman election, challenging incumbent chairRonna McDaniel.[49][12] The day of her announcement, Dhillon said on Twitter that she would offer a job to Presler if she was elected.[12] During the race, Presler published the email addresses and Twitter account names of RNC committee members on a website called "hireharmeet.com", which Dhillon shared on Twitter.[49][12]
Prior to theWisconsin Supreme Court election in April 2023, Presler traveled through Wisconsin and appeared onconservative talk radio shows to promote candidateDaniel Kelly, a formerWisconsin Supreme Court Justice.[42][50] After posting a video on Twitter of himself standing alongside Presler, Kelly was questioned by press on Presler's presence at the United States Capitol on the day of the Capitol attack, to which Kelly responded that he was not aware of Presler's previous activities.[42][50][51]
Presler runs a non-profit organization, Early Vote Action, intended to "organize & mobilize Republicans to vote early." Shortly after her installation asRepublican National Committee co-chair,Lara Trump, Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, expressed her interest to hire Presler to lead the Republican Party's "legalballot harvesting" efforts. The RNC later clarified it would not be hiring Presler.[52]
In the2024 United States presidential election, Presler worked on encouraging voters to vote for Donald Trump in theswing state ofPennsylvania, including someAmish communities. He cited the local case of an Amish farmer whose dairy was raided by state authorities for sellingunpasteurized milk without a permit; the raid preceded reports that two children had fallen sick due toE. coli poisoning connected to the farmer's milk.[53][54] He threatened to sueLuzerne County at a county meeting over claims of a voter registration andmail-in ballot application backlog, but did not ultimately file a lawsuit. He leveled similar accusations during appearances on right-wing media, notably theWar Room podcast hosted by political operativeSteve Bannon.[55]
In early 2025, after Presler's efforts to ensure a Republican victory inan election to theWisconsin Supreme Court failed, fellow gay pro-Trump activist and former friend Brandon Straka, who founded theWalkAway campaign, started a website with other conservatives, that criticized Presler as largely a beneficiary of media hype he orchestrated.[56] They observed that the Amish vote was relatively inconsequential to theoutcome in Pennsylvania. InLancaster County, where most of the state's Amish population is concentrated, they noted, the total vote for Trump increased by only 6,000 over the2020 election. He also carried the county in that election, even when it had more registered Democrats. Presler's critics also faulted him for not correcting a claim by his supporters that he had registered 180,000 Amish, since there are only 100,000 in the state.[57][56][58]
In a 2016 interview byThe Virginian-Pilot, Presler said he was not put off by the Republican Party's positions ongay rights despite being a gay man.[11] Presler further explained that he was supporting Trump's 2016 presidential campaign overHillary Clinton partly because of theSecond Amendment: "I 100 percent believe in the notion that armed gays don't get bashed. It is our right to feel safe."[11]
Presler expressed disagreement with President Trump's2017 Presidential Memorandum on Military Service by Transgender Individuals, which prohibited openmilitary service and enlistment of transgender Americans. Presler added, "'Generals know more about war than I do. I am cognisant that they understand what it takes to go to war... I don't think this is an attack on the LGBT community... I'm mixed, but I have confidence in the guidance that President Trump is receiving. I don't think for a second he's prejudiced.'"[59][60]
Presler voiced his support for theFlorida Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly referred to as the "Don't Say Gay" law, signed into law by state governorRon DeSantis in 2022.[61][62]
In 2017, while employed byanti-Muslim advocacy groupACT for America, Presler said in anNPR interview that he felt inspired to oppose "Muslim extremism" after the 2016 shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando.[1] Because the shooter allegedly swore allegiance to theIslamic State of Iraq and Syria, Presler said he felt the shooting exemplified homophobia in what he termed as "orthodox Islam".[1] Presler also toldThe Washington Post that he disagreed with theSouthern Poverty Law Center's claims that ACT for America is anextremist group and the "largest grass-roots anti-Muslim group in America", insisting that ACT for America intends to help girls and women affected bySharia (Islamic law).[2]