Candidate with Nazi salute in name removed from ballot

Alexandra Kukulka, Post-Tribune (Merrillville, Ind.) on Mar 19, 2026

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A Republican candidate who filed for U.S. representative in Indiana’s 1st District with the Nazi salute in his ballot name was removed from the ballot late last month when he didn’t show up to a hearing challenging his candidacy.

Richard Benedict Mayers, who has a history of failed campaigns on a white supremacist platform, filed as a Republican candidate for the First District and listed his ballot name as Richard Benedict (Sieg Heil) Mayers, according to election records.

Lake County Republican Party Chairman Randy Niemeyer attended the Indiana Election Commission meeting Feb. 25, papers in hand, to present his challenge to Mayers’ candidacy.

After Niemeyer stated his name and title for the record, the board called for Mayers. When neither Mayers nor a representative on his behalf stepped forward, commission member John Westercamp moved to uphold the challenge, which the commission unanimously voted in favor of in a voice vote.

At the start of the meeting, the commission adopted procedures for the challenges, including that if a challenger was not present then the challenge would be dismissed, but if the challenged candidate was not present then the challenge would be upheld.

In an interview with the Post-Tribune, Niemeyer said he filed a challenge against Mayers for not having a record of voting in primary elections in Indiana, which violates Indiana code. The challenge also argued that Mayers’ use of the Nazi salute was an attempt at electioneering and marketing, which also violates Indiana code.

To establish political party affiliation, a candidate for U.S. Representative has to have voted for candidates of the political party in at least two primary elections in Indiana or the political party chairman of the county in which the candidate lives in can certify the candidate is a part of the political party, according to Indiana code.

Niemeyer said Wednesday he has never spoken to Mayers.

“I suspect even if he did show up they would’ve upheld it,” Niemeyer said. “I was anticipating that he would be there, but either way, I was prepared to win.”

After Mayers filed to be a candidate, Niemeyer issued a statement that he was aware of a candidate “using a blatantly antisemitic nickname.”

“The Lake County Republican Party does not condone or offer any refuge or support to those who seek attention by these means,” Niemeyer said in the January statement. “None of the offices of the Lake County Republican Party, Porter County Republican Party, LaPorte County Republican Party or Indiana GOP First District Committee have ever met the candidate and jointly express our disgust with this filing.”

In January 2002, the Cook County electoral review board removed Mayers as a candidate in the Illinois 9th Congressional District Democratic primary after he did not have enough nominating petition signatures.

At the time, Mayers, who didn’t live within Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, filed 203 signatures and needed 600 to get on the ballot, according to the Evanston Review.

In 2000, Mayers was challenged for three constitutional amendments he filed in Cook County that would’ve banned interracial marriage, prohibit abortion of “healthy white babies” and send Black prisoners “back to western Africa.” The legal challenge to the referendum questions was filed because Mayers didn’t have the required number of signatures, according to WGN Chicago.

Mayers said he wanted to spend more federal money on education and change the government’s pro-Israeli Middle East policy, according to the Evanston Review.

“Some of my views are controversial,” Mayers told the Evanston Review. “But I think I could do good in some places. There could be some people that wouldn’t like me, but that’s the nature of politics.”

In Illinois, Mayers lost the 2000 Democratic primary against U.S. Rep. William Lipinski, D-3rd, of Chicago and lost a write-in campaign in that district in the 2000 general election. He also lost races for the 43rd state House district in 1998, for Berwyn Township Democratic committeeman in that year, and for a seat as a Berwyn alderman in 1993, according to the Evanston Review.

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