Since Michigan Republican lawmaker Josh Schriver shared a racist conspiracy theory online last week, he’s wasted no time doubling down on his rhetoric—even after losing his state House committee and staff as a result.
“I’m a White rapper and most conservative voting Representative in Michigan,” Rep. Schriver, who rhymes about his voting record and Jesus, wrote Wednesday on X. “I guess it was only a matter of time before I was falsely labeled a ‘raaacist!’”
In another post, the 31-year-old declared, “I’m a Christian…not a racist.”
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“I’ve worked in inner city schools with autistic children,” he continued. “Some politicians refuse to go near these communities. I go anywhere God leads me!” (One X user replied, “Self immolation is a sight to behold. Someone get this guy in touch with a PR firm ASAP.”)
The backlash began after Schriver reposted an image from alt-right provocateur Jack Posobiec about the “great replacement,” an antisemitic narrative claiming Jewish people are behind a plot to replace white populations with non-white immigrants. In recent years, the conspiracy theory inspired mass violence in Buffalo, El Paso, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere.
On Wednesday, Schriver issued an official statement on Michigan House of Representatives letterhead, referring to a “racist plan to replace Whites with non-Whites through illegal immigration to irreversibly warp America’s demographics, voting citizens, and national identity to keep power in the hands of a godless regime.”
“There is an anti-White agenda,” he later tweeted. “No one is ‘racist’ for talking about it.”
Democratic Rep. Jason Hoskins introduced a resolution that morning condemning the use of racist language by lawmakers. It passed 98-5, with four members of the House’s far-right Freedom Caucus joining Schriver with “no” votes.
Meanwhile, outside of the state Capitol, someone rented a truck with a billboard supporting Schriver and warning “The invaders are coming!” under a photo of a throng of people. It’s unclear who had commissioned the display.
Hoskins told The Daily Beast he presented the resolution because of “the racist conspiracy theories that have inspired mass shootings across this country and across the world.”
“I felt it very important, as a person of color and a queer person, to really say, ‘You even mentioning racist conspiracy theories puts my life in danger, my colleagues of color in danger, puts people of color across the state in danger.’”
“I don’t know why he's doing this,” Hoskins added. “I don’t know what the endgame is here. I hope that he realizes this is such a bad thing, and there’s so many people with valid concerns.”
Schriver, a former autism clinic supervisor who once boasted of being named Michigan’s “Most Conservative Lawmaker,” didn’t return messages seeking comment.
He did, however, appear to capitalize on the controversy during Posobiec’s show Thursday, playing the role of political martyr and plugging a newly created website. Indeed, Schriver has amassed a few thousand followers since the firestorm began.
“No one is ever going to run to the right of me,” Schriver said. “If the Republican establishment wants to oppose me in this election, then I’ll defend the seat that God called me to and I need your help. Visiting Joshschriver.com is one way to start that process.”
Schriver then took aim at Democratic House Speaker Joe Tate for disciplining him and “disenfranchising” his 90,000 constituents. Tate cut Schriver’s $132,000 office allotment, barring him from making even the smallest of expenditures for things like photocopying, and reassigned his staff and booted him from a committee. (The speaker has not shared a timeline for the restoration of Schriver’s funds.)
The freshman lawmaker, whose Substack describes him as “a former kindergarten teacher,” ran a mostly self-funded campaign in 2022. He also claimed to be a field organizer for Trump’s 2020 campaign and the founder of grassroots groups in his Detroit exurb of Oxford.
During the Posobiec segment, Schriver announced he was “currently an autism clinician”—despite state records showing his license expired in November. (Schriver did not return an email from The Daily Beast asking about his lapsed license.)
Watchdogs also recently challenged Schriver’s claim that he was an assistant coach for Oxford High’s JV boys basketball team. Last week, he posted a photo of his hairy leg with teen players in the background. “Gotta play basketball with my boys,” he wrote.
But the school district says it has no record of Schriver working there.
In an email, Oxford Community Schools superintendent Dr. Vickie Markavitch told The Daily Beast, “Rep. Josh Schriver is not working for Oxford Community Schools and to my knowledge he has never been an employee of the district.”
His wife Gabby Schriver, a goalkeeper with the Detroit City Football Club, is varsity girls’ soccer coach at the school, according to its athletics website.
On Twitter/X, Schriver has championed his wife’s athletic career, writing, “Supporting her has shown me how important it is to protect women’s sports.”
The scripture-quoting legislator also said he “would be most deeply honored to be killed as a martyr for Christ,” shared a haiku on the “migrant invasion,” called divorce a “plague,” and frequently calls for conservative actor Tim Allen to run for governor.
Then there’s his rap videos.
“My name is Josh Schriver. I represent you. I came to spit fire. Let me tell you what I do,” he rhymes while walking through the chamber doors for the song “Check Me Out.” “I do the best I can. Trust in God and not in man.”
In the track “The Conservative C.O.D.E,” he dances in the bed of a pickup truck before an American flag mural with the words, “In God We Trust.”
“I swore a sacred oath, so help me G-O-D,” he bounces. “G-O-D, help me G-O-D.”
“He’s definitely known in spite of his freshman status,” Hoskins told The Daily Beast. “Part of the reason is simply because he does vote no on everything.”
Despite a mass shooting at Oxford High in 2021, Schriver has rejected stricter gun laws, voting against a bill that stopped domestic abusers from owning firearms for eight years. (The bill passed and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed it into law in November.)
Schriver has also voted against legislation banning child marriage; prohibiting sexual contact under the pretext of medical treatment; designating Juneteenth as a state holiday; and making race-based discrimination based on someone’s hair texture or style illegal. These bills were also signed into law last year.
When he and four Freedom Caucus members rejected a bipartisan bill to close a loophole in the state’s marital rape law, Democratic Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, the legislation’s sponsor, tweeted that the five no-votes were “extremely disturbing.”
Sam Inglot, executive director of Progress Michigan, said Schriver may not be a “power player within the Republican apparatus,” but he belongs to a small but growing extremist faction of the state GOP.
“Rep. Shriver is part of the most far-right cohort of state Republican lawmakers that this state has ever seen,” Inglot told The Daily Beast. “So while he may be more bold with what he is saying, the trend of far-right rhetoric and MAGA level extremism in the Republican side of the legislature is very prominent.”
“You don’t have to look any further than the fact that House Minority Leader Matt Hall has been silent up to this point,” Ignlot added. “Because the type of rhetoric that Schriver is espousing should be very easy and very quickly condemned.”
“The fact that he is sitting on his hands remaining silent, while folks like Speaker Joe Tate are taking action, I think, speaks volumes about what the Republican legislators in office and their leadership prioritize right now.”
Few Republican state lawmakers have publicly denounced Schriver’s “great replacement” ideology—which isn’t the only time he’s dipped into extremism.
As Right Wing Watch pointed out, last fall Schriver seemed to brandish the one-finger salute of white supremacist Nick Fuentes and his America First fanboys during a local TV appearance. Afterward, he posted a screengrab of himself with the words “Autumn is my favorite” along with the hashtags #ChristisKing and #AmericaFirst. (Fuentes, banned from Twitter/X, reportedly used a burner account @autumngroyper.)
Republican Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers, a far-right supporter of Fuentes, has also repeatedly praised Schriver and called him “Michigan’s voice for MAGA.”
In January, Schriver joined an X Spaces conversation wherein he argued gender-affirming care should be banned regardless of a person’s age. “In terms of endgame, why are we allowing these practices for anyone?” Schriver said. “If we are going to stop this for anyone under 18, why not apply it for anyone over 18?”
He’s also used his platform to beef with the Satanic Temple, posting a thank-you card that he received from the group and falsely accusing state Dems of partnering with them. “After alerting our nation to the partnership between Michigan Democrats and the Sadistic Satanists, the evil duo sent me and my wife a creeper card,” he fumed.
Enraged by the temple’s Yule Goat stationed outside the capitol last December, Schriver vowed on a radio show to introduce legislation removing “tax exempt status from non-theistic churches.” He added that he’d craft a policy making pornography illegal too.
“God called me to represent him in government, regardless of personal expense,” Schriver told Posobiec on Thursday. “And so for me right now, to be going through what I’m going through joyfully is something that God is able to give us as believers.”
“We need to be representing God in government to reflect his excellency and his beauty in our communities,” he added. “Otherwise, there will be a God void that will inevitably be filled with godless individuals that will create a godless nation, a godless state, and godless communities where there will be death and destruction.
“And that’s something that I can’t stand by and just allow to happen.”
