Rachel Hamm, a Republican candidate to become California’s next Secretary of State, said during an interview Tuesday that she was nearly lured into Satanism during preschool. It’s the latest in a series of bizarre stories—all lacking evidence—that Hamm has made since announcing her candidacy.
She was speaking with Meri Crouley, a self-described “anointed speaker who operates with a strong prophetic anointing,” about how she overcame a traumatic childhood to rise to where she is today. Before getting into the “trauma” part of her story, however, she mentioned how Satan also tries to get ahold of you when you’re young, and that led to this lengthy story, which I’ve only edited for time. (You can watch it in full beginning at the 5:08 mark here.)
HAMM: … Satan also has a plan for your life, and that’s something that, I think, is sometimes eye-opening to people. Like, they don’t realize how much there’s a battle over your life and over your destiny, and how we have to war to sometimes get ourselves into that promised land.
And for me, the war started really young. When I was in preschool, my mom was a stay-at-home mom, so I was normally home with her, but then she had to have surgery on her neckm and it was gonna be quite the recovery process, and gonna be just a long journey, so my grandmother offered to put me in preschool, since it would be hard for my mom to recover and also take care of me.
So she took her up on that, and the preschool was a coven that was run by witches, and really, the cover was that it was a preschool, but in reality, it was a coven where they were training children in Satanic rituals, and in all things Satanic, and how to be a Satanist. Literally.
… It was day one… It was immediate. And I then, you know, just begged to not go back. But I didn’t say what was happening there, though, because they made you feel like you were complicit, so you would never tell because you think you’re equally guilty…
CROULEY: So, just briefly, what… what kind of things… Were they having you do things, like, sexually, with the other kids? Or were they trying to have them do that to you?]
HAMM: All of the above…
… And then they just literally, like, teach you how to cast a spell… um… We had to make covenants, which, I have undone all of that now, you know?…
… One thing that’s interesting is, I had been told in the preschool that my firstborn would belong to Satan, and I did not have conscious memory of that on an ongoing basis until later, I remember that at one point.
None of that happened. I feel confident in saying that. I don’t know what Hamm’s childhood was like, but everything she said sounds like the fever dream of a child raised in a fundamentalist Christian home and not like anything that actually happens in reality. If Hamm wants to reveal the name of the preschool so someone can investigate, fantastic, but not surprisingly, she failed to offer any relevant details in the interview. That doesn’t negate any actual trauma she may have suffered, but the Satanic Panic-themed anecdote is so far-fetched, it’s virtually impossible to believe.
It’s not the first time Hamm has said something like this. Last September, she claimed God wanted her to run for office and that her ten-year-old son was a prophet. In October, she told an audience about a dream she had that included a robber, prayer, and a dead neighbor witch lady. (When asked for evidence, she said she had none.) And this past January, she told a loooooong story about selling her house after her “prophet” son told her to:
At the moment, Hamm is the only declared candidate in the race for Secretary of State, though other candidates will undoubtedly jump in soon. Her campaign website is just a series of right-wing conspiracy theories about supposed election fraud that have no basis in reality. She’s just another Christian zealot with delusions of grandeur—atop her other delusions—who thinks being an elected official is the best way to spread the gospel. Her actual goals include instituting voter ID laws, eliminating mail-in voting, getting rid of early voting, and letting right-wing crazies monitor polling places.
It turns out there’s no shortage of things to fix when all your enemies are figments of your imagination.
(Thanks to Kyle for the link)