Ted Busiek is running for the Massachusetts Senate. (Facebook/Ted Buiek)
Ted Busiek is a Republican running for the Massachusetts State Senate. He’s a staunch Donald Trump supporter and earned some attention on Twitter by using a homophobic slur in a tweet on July 2. Busiek has stood by his message, telling State House News Service that it wasn’t used in a “hateful sense.” He also stood by his use of the term on Twitter.
Here’s a look at Busiek and what his stances are on major issues.
1. Busiek’s Tweet Criticized the Congressman Who Questioned Trump in 1993 Over Indian Casinos
In Buiek’s original tweet, he retweeted a post from MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that included video from Trump’s 1993 testimony in front of the Native American affairs committee. During the testimony, Trump said that some of the casino operators he’s encountered “don’t look Indian to me.”
“You’re saying only Indians can have the reservations, only Indians can have the gaming,” Trump later tells Representative George Miller of California. “So why aren’t you approving it for everybody? Why are you being discriminatory? Why is it that the Indians don’t pay tax, but everybody else does? I do.”
“DONALD TRUMP. Putting self-righteous f*****s in their place since 1993. How I love this fellow,” Busiek wrote on Twitter. He added “#MAGA” for “Make America Great Again,” Trump’s slogan.
2. Busiek Defended His Language & Said the Congressman Questioning Trump Was a ‘Jerk’
Ted Busiek’s Twitter profile photo. (Twitter/Ted Busiek)
In his interview with State House News Service, Busiek said he used the term to describe the congressman in the video, who he calls “obnoxious” and “kind of a jerk.” He added, “You can insult somebody without being hateful.”
Senator Jamie Eldridge, who is running against Busiek, told the State House News Service that Busiek needs to apologize and possibly even drop out.
It doesn’t look like Busiek has any intention of doing either of those. “Just imagine what an unsafe world we’d live in if not for the language police to tell us what words we can’t say,” he wrote in another tweet.
“The important thing to know about the people destroying our country is that it’s bad to call them mean names,” he later added.
3. Busiek Served in the Air Force as an Arabic Translator
Ted Busiek shakes a supporter’s hand at a Donald Trump rally in Massachusetts. (Twitter/Ted Busiek)
According to a Wicked Local profile of Busiek, he lives in Littleton, Massachusetts and grew up in Acton. He has been interested in politics since he was 14 and worked for Vernon Robinson in 2006 when Robinson ran unsuccessfully for Congress in North Carolina.
In 2008, he joined the military and was an Arabic translator in the Air Force. He has an associate’s degree in the language from the Defense Language Institute. He was honorably discharged in 2013 and now works for a marketing firm.
This is his first time running for political office and he thinks he can win.
“So this is really just the first time it’s been a feasible possibility. I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think I could spare the time and effort that it’ll take to win,” he told Wicked Local.
4. Busiek Wants to Get Rid of State Sales Tax on Massachusetts-Made Products
On his website, Busiek said he wants to see a bill passed that would exempt the Bay State’s stales tax on products made in Massachusetts. He suggests that this would help Massachusetts industry.
“I’d like to see legislation to make anything manufactured in the Bay State sales tax-exempt,” Busiek told Wicket Local.
Busiek’s other big economic idea is to have a tiered minimum wage system, where employees who don’t live in Massachusetts but work there would be paid $15 an hour. Non-naturalized foreigners working in the commonwealth would get a $30/hour minimum wage.
“I’d also like to reset the minimum wage for native Bay-Staters down to the federal minimum, so that nobody who wants to work, however unskilled, is priced out of the labor market,” Busiek wrote on his site. “The current system really disadvantages native unskilled labor.”
Busiek also wants to get rid of the state income tax and affordable housing programs.
5. He Is Against Gay Marriage & Wants to Stop Gay Parents From Adopting
The Massachusetts State House in 2007. (Getty)
Although Busiek told the State House News Service that he has no “enmity” towards gay people, he is against gay marriage, which has been legal in the state since 2003. On his site, Busiek also wrote, “Particularly distressing is a modern trend in Massachusetts of same-sex couples being allowed to adopt and raise children. We ought to prohibit this.”
Busiek also wrote to Republican Governor Charlie Baker, asking him not to sign the Massachusetts Transgender Rights Bill.
Also on his site, Busiek wrote that he wants to end daylight savings time, end the Massachusetts fireworks ban and lower the drinking age to 18. He also wants to “discourage the use of psychotropic drugs on young children,” according to his site.
