Faith 2 Action's Janet Porter is a longtime anti-gay and anti-choice activist who has embraced a variety of wild conspiracy theories while constantly warning of the looming "criminalization of Christianity."
For years, Porter used her daily radio program and weekly column to promote a variety of conspiracy theories surrounding President Obama's birth, alleging that his election was the result of a massive communist conspiracy. After her prayers failed to prevent Obama from taking office and subsequently cursing America, Porter went to work warning her fellow conservatives that Obama would orchestrate food shortages in order to starve them to death, use a swine flu outbreak as an excuse to lock them up in concentration camps, and use Obamacare to deny them healthcare and eliminate them.
Porter has also long warned that increasing acceptance of gay rights will turn Christians into criminals who will eventually be rounded up and tossed in jail, going so far as to try and prevent the Supreme Court from ruling on the issue of gay marriage. Recently she produced an anti-gay documentary called "Light Wins" that featured a variety of Republican members of Congress, GOP presidential hopefuls and anti-gay activists warning that gay activists are "grooming" and endangering children, for which they should be held criminally liable.
Despite her radical views, Porter managed to host a "Values Voters Debate" back in 2007, which featured Mike Huckabee and other GOP presidential contenders making their pitches to a bevy of radical Religious Right activists. But Porter's star dimmed a bit when her radio program was cancelled in 2010 due to her growing ties to the Dominionist movement, as typified by her prayers that God would give conservative Christians control over the government and the media:
Porter eventually resurfaced in Ohio, where she has spent the last several years organizing a series of stunts and rallies aimed at pressuring the state legislature to pass her radical "Heartbeat Bill" legislation, which would outlaw abortion from the moment a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
Despite years of intense lobbying, Porter's legislation has never even come close to passage, so now she intends to step up her efforts by running for a seat in the state legislature herself:
The president of a Christian activist organization will challenge incumbent state Sen. Larry Obhof of Montville Township for the 22nd district in the March Republican primary.
Obhof will face Janet Porter, of Hinckley Township, on March 15.
As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, no Democrats had filed to run for the seat, meaning the primary winner likely will run uncontested in November.
Porter is president and founder of Faith 2 Action, a Christian organization that says it opposes same-sex marriage. Before starting the organization in 2003, she was the national director for the Center for Reclaiming America for five years and a legislative director at Ohio Right to Life for nine years.
She told The Gazette on Wednesday that she recently finished filming a documentary, “Light Wins: How to Overcome the Criminalization of Christianity,” and she interviewed Kim Davis, a Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last summer.
“I stand for life. I stand for liberty,” she said. “The family is the nucleus of the state. It’s the basis for business.”
In addition to a pro-life position on abortion and opposition to gay marriage, Porter said she supports tax incentives to small businesses and less government interference.
She said she is also an author of Ohio’s “heartbeat” bill, which prohibits abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. The bill has been in the Ohio Senate for consideration since last spring. She said she asked Obhof to sign a petition to bring the bill to a vote, but he declined. This encounter was one of the reasons she decided to become a candidate, she said.
“We’re running against the Republican obstructionist establishment,” she said. “There’s more they can do to represent life, liberty and the family.”
