Scott Baugh, the Republican nominee running in California’s Orange County-based 47th Congressional District, campaigned with and touts an endorsement from a local official with a history of antisemitism and affiliations with a series of well-known far-right extremists.

Baugh, the minority leader in the California Assembly, is running against Dave Min to replace Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA). 

Over the course of his two campaigns, Baugh accepted an endorsement from and has campaigned on at least four occasions with Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark. The endorsement is featured on Baugh’s campaign website.

Baugh was photographed with Van Der Mark at an Aug. 15 campaign event, appeared onstage with her at an October 2022 event and was listed on event invitations — promoted by Baugh’s campaign — for events featuring both of them in July and September 2022.

The OC Weekly reported in 2018 that Van Der Mark, then an appointed city finance commissioner, had joined with a group of well-known neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other far right activists to interrupt an anti-racism workshop, posting videos from that workshop on her YouTube channel.

In since-deleted comments below that video, Van Der Mark stated, “This meeting was being ran by the elderly Jewish people who were in there” and “The colored people were there doing what the elderly Jewish people instructed them to do,” the OC Weekly reported. She denied, at the time, any antisemitic or racist intent.

Van Der Mark’s now-deleted YouTube channel also featured a playlist entitled “Holocaust hoax?” that included a series of antisemitic videos, at least one of which contained Holocaust revisionism, according to the OC Weekly.

Local Jewish leaders and the Anti-Defamation League condemned Van Der Mark at the time and said she should be investigated and removed from her finance commission seat. She was removed from two school district committees, but not from the city commission spot.

Van Der Mark was also a member of a Facebook group for the Three Percenters militia group, made Islamophobic comments on social media and has been photographed with and praised leaders of the Proud Boys militia and various neo-Nazi figures, including several imprisoned over their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Van Der Mark also reportedly defended a book burning event being held by neo-Nazis in the area.

As a city council member, she voted with a majority of members to dissolve the city’s human relations committee and remove anti-hate crimes language from the city’s human dignity policy.

Baugh’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The Cook Political Report rates the race between Baugh and Min as “lean Democrat.” Min faced an avalanche of attack ads during the primary from pro-Israel groups — including AIPAC’s United Democracy super PAC and Democratic Majority for Israel — but has since been endorsed in the general election by DMFI.

A source familiar with the situation said DMFI had initial concerns about Min’s position paper on Israel and that communication with his campaign broke down in the run-up to the primary. DMFI endorsed Democratic candidate Joanna Weiss and spent more than $100,000 in the race.

But the two sides re-connected after Min won the primary and discussed areas of ambiguity in his position paper after the primary, the source said, adding that DMFI has no remaining concerns about Min and sees him as a reliable supporter of Israel.

The Republican Jewish Coalition endorsed Baugh on Tuesday, and did not respond to a request for comment.