A few Republican elected officials in late December 2025 posted social media messages honoring Kwanzaa, a secular holiday founded by a black nationalist and convicted criminal.
As many prominent Democrats posted in honor of Kwanzaa, which kicked off Dec. 26, some sitting GOP officials, including Republican New York Rep. Mike Lawler and Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, also joined in praising the week-long pan-African celebration with far-left roots.
“As Kwanzaa begins, I wish all those who celebrate a season of reflection, unity, and purpose. May it bring peace and prosperity to you and your family,” Lawler wrote on X from his government account Dec. 26.
In just over four days, Lawler’s post had received over 73,000 views and 441 comments but just 50 likes. Multiple comments critical of the congressman’s post received significantly more likes than the post itself.
The lawmaker was just one of four House Republicans to vote against a bill to criminalize sex change procedures nationwide on Dec. 17. Earlier in the same day, he broke with the vast majority of the lower chamber’s Republican Caucus to sign a discharge petition to force a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies, an issue widely championed by Democrats.
Lawler represents an upstate New York swing seat that former Vice President Kamala Harris won by just over half a percentage point in the 2024 presidential election. He is a top Democratic target heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
Meanwhile, DeWine, who leads a state that voted for President Donald Trump by double digits, posted a pro-Kwanzaa message on multiple social media platforms with his government account. The Republican governor referred to the controversial pan-African celebration as a “joyful and meaningful holiday.” DeWine’s X post, like Lawler’s, received significantly more comments, most of them negative, than likes.
Both Lawler and DeWine are Roman Catholics. While the Catholic Church, in addition to some other Christian denominations, notably observes Dec. 26 as the second day of the Christmas Octave, neither of their X accounts honored this celebration that day.
Neither Lawler nor DeWine immediately responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Moreover, the X accounts of GOP caucuses in both the New York State Senate and the New Jersey Senate posted pro-Kwanzaa messages on Dec. 26.
“As we honor our heritage and roots, let us all come together to celebrate the deep traditions and culture of the African American community,” the New York State Senate Republicans wrote on X.
New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt also made a pro-Kwanzaa post from his own X account.
“May the seven principles bring peace, purpose, and prosperity in the year ahead,” wrote the New Jersey State Senate Republicans, referring to Kwanzaa’s guiding tenets, which appear similar to the seven founding principles of a notorious far-left domestic terrorist group that was active during the 1970s.
The Manhattan Republican Party also honored Kwanzaa in a Dec. 26 X post.
Several sitting Republican officials who had posted messages supportive of the holiday to social media in previous years have yet to honor Kwanzaa in 2025, four days into the celebration. Republican New York State Sens. Steve Rhoads and Jack Martins honored the holiday in X posts sent on Dec. 26, 2024, but did not send a similar post one year later. Republican Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson posted a pro-Kwanza message complete with “fun facts” to X in 2023, but not 2024 or 2025.
Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, who posted a message acknowledging Kwanzaa to X in 2021 — his first year in Congress — but not in any subsequent year. Donalds, the current frontrunner in the Sunshine State’s 2026 gubernatorial race, is one of four black Republicans in the House, and was one of two at the time.
Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga, now 84, created Kwanzaa in 1966 when he was in his 20s. The year before, he had co-founded US Organization, a black nationalist group and a rival of the Black Panther Party during the 1960s.
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Karenga, born Ronald Everett, would go on to be convicted in 1971 after allegedly brutally torturing two female members of his own organization with a soldering iron and toaster while they were naked.
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