Mike Lawler is a lot of things: Congressman, New Yorker, Republican. But there’s also a lesser known detail floating around about Lawler: He’s a Michael Jackson superfan.
In an interview with Roll Call this year, Lawler named a 2001 Jackson performance as one of his favorite concerts. He follows scores of the extended Jackson clan on social media. And one of his Instagram posts is devoted to the King of Pop’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
For observers of the rising House GOP star—best known for taking out Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) last cycle—Lawler’s fandom of Michael Jackson may come as a surprise. The former GOP operative is a mainstay on Fox News. In Congress, he has spent much of his political capital on trying to raise the cap on the State and Local Tax deduction or ousting fellow New York Republican George Santos.
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But rest assured, Lawler campaign spokesperson Chris Russell confirmed that the freshman congressman is, in fact, a Jackson fan.
“It’s true that Congressman Lawler—who is known to have performed the Moonwalk once or twice—is a fan of Michael Jackson’s music and even attended one of his last concerts at Madison Square Garden in 2001,” Russell said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
“As to any questions about the Congressman being a ‘super fan’, just beat it,” Russell said, referencing Jackson’s 1982 hit song.
Lawler’s enthusiasm for Jackson dates back decades. Entertainment reporter J. Randy Taraborrelli’s 2009 MJ biography Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story described Lawler as a full-on stan.
“A friend of mine named Michael Lawler—an ardent Jackson admirer who had followed the proceedings so closely he knew the evidence better than even I did—had flown in from New York to attend the trial,” Taraborrelli wrote in the biography.
The trial in question was the 14-week 2005 media circus in Santa Barbara County involving allegations that Jackson sexually abused children. Gavin Arvizo—a 14-year-old who appeared in a documentary called Living with Michael Jackson—testified that he was molested by Jackson.
Per Taraborrelli’s account, on April 13, 2005, the biographer helped a then-18-year-old Lawler get into the courtroom to hear testimony from Arvizo’s mother, Janet. She claimed that Jackson had kidnapped and held her and her family captive at his beloved Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California.
Lawler, Taraborrelli wrote, was “so disgusted” by Janet Arvizo’s testimony “that he couldn’t help but mutter something derogatory under his breath. Overheard by the officials, he promptly got tossed right out of the courtroom.”
“‘The next time you help someone get into here,’” a sheriff deputy later told Taraborrelli. “You’d better tell him to keep his trap shut even if the witnesses are crazy as freaking loons.”
Arvizo was later charged with fraud and perjury for her statements during the trial and accepted a plea agreement. Two months after Lawler’s showing in court, Jackson was acquitted of all criminal charges.
The pop superstar died in 2009, but allegations that he sexually assaulted underaged boys have outlived him. The 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland examined allegations by choreographer Wade Robson and former child actor James Safechuck, who say Jackson abused them as children.
Taraborrelli—who interviewed Jackson several times throughout his career—and Lawler continue to follow each other on various social media platforms. In the acknowledgements of his 2009 Jackson biography, Taraborrelli thanked Lawler for his guidance.
“Special thanks to Mike Lawler for his advice and support on all-things-Jackson,” Taraborrelli said. “He has helped me in so many ways over the years where Michael is concerned, and I am very grateful to him.”
In addition to MJ, Lawler appears to keep up with the rest of the Jackson family via social media. Among his many Facebook likes—which include The Golden Girls, Jersey Shore and The Phantom of the Opera—he also likes the 2020 reality show centered around Jackson’s daughter Paris, Unfiltered: Paris Jackson & Gabriel Glenn.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., leaves the U.S. Capitol after the last votes of the week.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesLawler also follows 20-plus Jackson-related or Jackson family accounts on Instagram, including other members of the original Jackson 5 band: Jackie, Jermaine, and Tito Jackson, as well as sisters Janet and La Toya Jackson.
Lawler is staring down a tough re-election race against former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) in a newly redrawn district north of New York City. A slew of Republican flips in New York buoyed the GOP to a House majority in 2022. But now every political operatives’ eyes are on the region as the class of freshman New York Republicans have to defend their seats.
In the meantime, Lawler isn’t the only music fan roaming the halls of Capitol Hill. Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Chris Coons (D-CT) jockeyed on X, formerly known as Twitter, to be the bigger fan of South Korean K-pop group BTS. The first Gen. Z member of Congress, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), is reportedly a fan of Harry Styles and Ariana Grande. Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) famously loved Rage Against the Machine, even though the rock band decidedly did not love him back.
Jackson himself was no stranger to Washington, D.C. He received an award from President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and performed at President Bill Clinton’s Inaugural gala in 1993. Jackson also had a 2004 meeting with leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus in Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah’s office to discuss humanitarian work in Africa.
And Kellyanne Conway worked on public opinion polling for Jackson before she managed former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
After the pop star’s death, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) spoke at Jackson’s memorial at the Los Angeles’ Staples Center and introduced a 1,500-word resolution honoring him as an “American legend and musical icon.” Other members still in Congress signed the resolution, including Reps. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) and Danny Davis (R-IL). (Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blocked the effort.)
“He called us into public service. It did not matter whether we were Black or white. He even told us to beat it—beat the violence and look at yourself in the mirror,” Jackson-Lee said at Jackson’s memorial.
