Orlando Sonza, the Republican nominee against Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), running in a battleground district, accepted and promoted an endorsement from a prolific antisemite and Holocaust denier.

Sonza, a military veteran and West Point graduate, accountant and former prosecutor, promoted on his website and social media an endorsement from Kiumars Kiani, a Cincinnati man with a long record of blatant antisemitic activity, including Holocaust denial. Landsman, Sonza’s opponent, is Jewish. The campaign pulled down and rejected the endorsement when contacted by Jewish Insider.

Kiani, also known as Dr. Q, ran in the district in 2016, 2018 and 2020 as an independent write-in candidate, collecting less than a dozen votes in 2020. 

Sonza’s congressional campaign website’s endorsements page listed Kiani as a “community leader & grassroots activist,” one of 35 named on the page. The Sonza campaign’s X account also posted that list of endorsements, including Kiani, in July 2023. The endorsements page on Sonza’s website states he is “proud of the long list of elected officials, grassroots activists, and community leaders who have endorsed his candidacy.”

During his 2016 congressional run, Kiani’s campaign ran a blatantly antisemitic radio ad claiming that Jewish bankers were propping up Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign through control of the media and voting systems.

“The international bankers around Goldman Sachs and the Fed are the organized, worldwide, Christ-hating, America-hating Jewish shadow government behind communism and the New World Order,” the ad declares. “These Jewish bankers rig key elections through their control of all five big TV networks which are issuing the false polls and their control of the 3 big mega election vendors.”

The ad ends, “paid for by Dr. Kiumars Kiani for Congress 2016.”

A Sonza campaign spokesperson said the campaign was not previously aware of Kiani’s activities.

“Upon learning of Kiani’s anti-Semitic comments, we reject Kiumars Kiani’s endorsement entirely,” a Sonza campaign spokesperson said. “Anti-Semitism has no place in our country, in our campaign, and in our politics.”

The campaign spokesperson said the campaign received and publicized Kiani’s endorsement “solely based on [the] criteria” that he was and remains a Republican Party precinct executive. The spokesperson said that Kiani has not been involved with the campaign or campaign activities in any capacity “other than being listed with other Precinct Executives.”

Kiani did not respond to a request for comment to a phone number listed on his now-defunct campaign website.

Jim Condit Jr., Kiani’s self-identified campaign manager, has his own long history of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. He asked supporters for help to run the ad on higher-profile radio shows. Condit appears to be the narrator of Kiani’s ad.

Condit’s website explains that he used Kiani’s campaign to force radio stations to run the ads under a U.S. law requiring broadcast stations to allow federal election candidates access to advertising time.

Kiani’s very active social media pages are also replete with antisemitic imagery and posts, and other conspiracy theory-laden content, including in the months before Sonza advertised his endorsement. His Instagram account includes multiple incidents of Holocaust denial as well as the “Happy Merchant” cartoon and claims that Jews are “satanists.” His X page features other antisemitic conspiracy theories.

And just days before Sonza advertised his endorsement, Kiani reposted a post on X praising the Nazis.

Kiani’s 2016 campaign also sponsored a radio show, “Target Freedom USA,” hosted by Condit, on which Kiani appeared as a co-host on several occasions, according to the show’s website. 

One episode co-hosted by Kiani was titled “the Jewish lobby & shadow government”; the episode description accuses Israel of carrying out the 9/11 attacks and the USS Liberty bombing. Another episode featured neo-Nazi leader Matthew Heimbach as a guest.

Kiani has engaged in a variety of other baseless conspiracy theories as well, including in 2020 accusing Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, of being “a piece of crap old child molester.”

Since the endorsement, Kiani’s posts have continued in the same tenor — a frequent stream of antisemitic invective amid other bizarre content, including further Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories about Jewish control and claims that Jews orchestrated the attempted  assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Kiani also shared quotes from white nationalist leader Nick Fuentes and Adolf Hitler and posts including a code for “Heil Hitler.”

Kiani describes himself as an immigrant and activist from Iran who moved to the U.S. in the early 2000s following persecution by the Iranian regime and an alleged poisoning attempt. 

He has claimed repeatedly that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was created by the CIA and Israeli Mossad.

Kiani purports to hold a doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire, and has an IMDB page that describes him as a documentary producer, though a LinkedIn page in his name describes him as an insurance broker for an India-based company that does not appear to sell insurance.