Meet the Gothic-Punk Role-Player Running Against Ted Yoho, a Former Large-Animal Veterinarian

Some con­gres­sion­al can­did­ates were busi­ness­men or farm­ers be­fore they de­cided to run for of­fice. Oth­ers dressed up as vam­pires and per­formed rituals in­volving book burn­ings.

One of the can­did­ates chal­len­ging Rep. Ted Yoho in the Flor­ida Re­pub­lic­an primary is in­volved in that kind of ex­tra­cur­ricular activ­ity, the polit­ic­al site Saint Peters Blog dis­covered.

Jake Rush, through live-ac­tion ro­le­play­ing as part of the Mind’s Eye So­ci­ety, some­times goes by al­ter egos: Chazz Darling, Darling van de Winst, Jo­han Gam­brys, Zane Daily, The Kriesler, Arch­bish­op Ket­ter­ing, among oth­er vam­pires and su­per­nat­ur­al creatures.

Some of the role-play­ing in­volves aim­ing shot­guns at dogs, dress­ing as a de­mon, us­ing satan­ic sym­bol­ism, be­ing chained and gagged, and wear­ing bloody an­gel wings.

In its de­scrip­tion of the so­ci­ety, the Saint Peters Blog adds this ex­plain­er: “Note: For the un­ini­ti­ated, a suc­cubus is a fe­male de­mon who ap­pears in dreams, usu­ally in hu­man form, to se­duce men through sexu­al activ­ity.”

In one of the more dis­turb­ing rev­el­a­tions, one of Rush’s on­line posts as “Chazz Darling,” where he writes in part, ” … while I snorted a line off my new ma­chete.”

Rush re­spon­ded to the rev­el­a­tions in­to his per­son­al life with a state­ment to the Miami Her­ald, say­ing he’s been treated un­fairly for his “vivid ima­gin­a­tion” and “hobby activ­it­ies.”

“Yes, I play and have played video games, role-play­ing games, board games, Yahtzee, Clue, and I have ac­ted in dozens of theatre pro­duc­tions,” Rush said in a state­ment that in­cludes a photo of him and his wife in tight-fit­ting su­per­hero out­fits.

Rush, in the state­ment, does point to his three passed back­ground checks in his pro­fes­sion­al ca­reer and says he is a prac­ti­cing Chris­ti­an. But bot­tom line, “There is noth­ing wrong with be­ing a gamer,” he con­tin­ues. “It’s kinda nerdy.”

This rev­el­a­tion makes the primary race against Yoho, a staunch tea-party con­gress­man and former large-an­im­al veter­in­ari­an, that much more in­ter­est­ing.

By day, however, Rush has a more nor­mal life. He’s a law­yer and former county po­lice of­ficer. He re­leased his first cam­paign ad a week ago, and it shows him in a suit with hand on the Bible, and teach­ing chil­dren the Con­sti­tu­tion.

“Jake is a con­ser­vat­ive straight shoot­er who knows that Wash­ing­ton spend­ing is out of con­trol,” a nar­rat­or says.

UP­DATE

The Yoho cam­paign said it has no com­ment on these rev­el­a­tions.