8 MA Lawmakers Have Joined 'Far Right' Facebook Groups: Report

MASSACHUSETTS — Eight members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives are among the nearly 900 state lawmakers from around the U.S. who have joined social media groups identified by a watchdog as extremist or far right, according to a new report.

The Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights found 875 state legislators in all 50 states who have joined 789 Facebook groups that the progressive think tank calls "far-right or extremist." The institute organized each of the groups into categories, including COVID-19 deniers and Tea Party descendants.

In Massachusetts, all but one of the lawmakers named in the report is a Republican. The lone Democrat, Patrick Joseph Kearney, along with Republicans Alyson Sullivan and Shawn Dooley, joined the REOPEN MA Facebook group, which opposed government restrictions on Massachusetts at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the report.

Kearney's district includes Marshfield and Scituate. Sullivan, who was elected after Geoff Diehl stepped down to run against Elizabeth Warren in the 2018 U.S. Senate election, represents Abigton, Whitman and parts of East Bridgewater, while Dooley represents Medfield, Millis, Norfolk, Plainville, Walpole and Wrentham.

The other Massachusetts lawmakers named in the report include:

• David Decoste, who represents Hanover, Norwell and Rockland, and Steven Howitt, who represents Rehoboth, Seekonk and parts of Norton and Swansea, both joined Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Howitt is also a member of The Jewish Tea Party Of America, according to the report.
• Marc Lombardo, who represents Billerica, joined OUR CHILDREN OUR CHOICE, a Facebook group for people who opposed COVID-19-related mandates in Billerica.
• Steven Xiarhos, whose district includes Sandwich and parts of Barnstable, Bourne and Plymouth, joined Convention of States, which the report categorized as "Constitutionally-Constructed Nationalism."
• Todd Smola, whose district includes Brimfield, Holland, Palmer, Sturbridge, Wales, Warren and part of Ware in western Massachusetts, is a member of the Pioneer Valley Tea Party.

"News to me, never heard of it," Howitt said in an email when asked for comment.

"This story is irresponsible, offensive, and as slanderous as it is ridiculous," Xiarhos said. "As a Gold Star Father and a former Deputy Chief of Police, I very strongly object to and denounce any effort to misconstrue and misrepresent my political ideology and my reputation."

Patch has asked the other lawmakers named in the report for comment and will update this story if they respond. In public comments, lawmakers from other states who were named in the report have noted that membership in a Facebook group is not necessarily indicative of a lawmaker's position and that some groups may not be as extreme as the IREHR report implies.

"Those aren't far-right Facebook pages,” Connecticut state Rep. Tom O'Dea, who was also named, told CT Insider. "I am not anywhere near a COVID denier."

"One critical area of concern for the United States is how deeply the far-right has penetrated state politics," IREHR researchers wrote in the report. "The depth of far-right activity in state legislatures is still largely unknown. The information to date is fragmented and far from a complete picture. This report changes that by bringing much-needed context to the national discussion."