Randall Terry on destroying the Democratic Party: 'I'm running to be margin of defeat ... in the swing states'

Randall Terry is a lifelong pro-life activist who founded the Operation Rescue group, which he headed until 1991. He and the group were known for their controversial tactics targeting abortion clinics, blocking entrances and staging raucous protests as Terry and associates racked up dozens of arrests and enormous sums in civil judgments along the way.

In 2024, Terry won the Constitution Party nomination for president and is running to make the sanctity of human life the focal point of his campaign, with an advertising strategy explicitly designed to boost the Trump campaign and hurt the Democrats.

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"My mission is still the same, and that is to make it a criminal act to kill a human being from conception until birth. For that to happen, you have to be in the political realm. You have to be a lawmaker," he said. "I am not going to win the presidency. I'm not running to win. I'm running to be the margin of defeat … in the swing states. Because I'm a federal candidate, I can run television ads 60 days from the election, and the TV stations are required by law to take them, so I can target Catholic and African-American voters in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania."

He dismisses the argument that he is likely to serve as a spoiler, taking disproportionately more votes from Trump in the election.

"My candidacy is based around the three Ds: defend children, defeat the Democrat nominee, destroy the Democrat[ic] Party. That's the mission. And for every one voter that leaves voting for Trump, for me, there's going to be 20 that leave the Democrats because of the way our ads are targeted, because of our messaging. So, Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, he has thrown in with us. He's raising money for us. And he has said every Republican in America should be giving you money. You're the secret weapon, because we can torpedo the Democrats with this message, which ultimately is going to end up helping Trump."

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Terry's economic policies focus on reducing regulation and taxation and boosting energy production and independence.

"The Constitution Party's economic policy is simple: less regulation, lower taxes," he said. "Stop putting a gun to people's head to pay for your favorite giveaway. America had averaged a 1% tax on the entire populace up until 1913, with the exception of the Civil War when they were retiring war debt. When we had incredibly low taxes, low government regulations, we became the economic wonder of the world," he said. "And now, with so much government regulation and so much taxes, we are driving business to foreign shores, or we're bankrupting it. You want to have a great and free and prosperous country? Drill, baby, drill, open up the pipeline. Bring fuel here. … Make us energy independent. Become an exporter of oil and tell Saudi Arabia and Venezuela bye-bye."

Terry said he is concerned that the Ukraine conflict is serving as a distraction from the machinations of China, which he views as a far greater threat.

"I think that Putin's obsession with the ancestral territorial parts of Russia is what is driving him. And the question is, how much American treasure, how much American blood … are we prepared to be shed in these conflicts? And that, to me, is where we have real and honorable disagreements. We're sitting by while China is ready to become literally the dominant force in the world. China is poising themselves to be the dominant force militarily and economically. … We're sitting by while China is preparing to take over Taiwan and to become the military and economic powerhouse of the world, but we're obsessing over Russia and Ukraine. I smell a rat."

Terry believes that the emerging Moscow-Beijing axis will enable the export of tyranny and continues to pose a significant threat to the West. He also argues that failed American policies have driven the two powerhouses together.

"Historically, the Russian communists and the Chinese communists have not gotten along," he said. "We are driving Russia into the arms of China. We have far more in common with the Russians historically with our connection to Christianity, Russian Orthodoxy," he said, "but they are discussing, now openly, breaking the stronghold of the American dollar over oil. Once oil is no longer forced by law, by international treaties to be traded in dollars, all bets are off."

"We don't even know what's going to happen at that point. And if they come up with some kind of a new triumvirate or any coalition between Russia, which has massive oil fields that are untapped, China, which is a massive economic powerhouse, and then maybe Iran or some other heavy oil producing [country] … they're going to be able to tell the West, 'Go to hell, we'll do whatever we want.' And they will be exporting their political tyranny, and they will be not just in control of Hollywood but in control of small governments."