How an atheist candidate survived intense right-wing religious attacks

From accusations of promoting Satanism to church politicking, Neil Polzin faced numerous culture-war tactics—and still prevailed in Covina, California

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I make a lot of posts on here about elected officials at the state and federal level, but it’s always worth remembering that most elected offices are at the local level, held by people in your community, and those are the seats that have the most direct impact on your life.

Several years ago, a friend of mine, Neil Polzin, decided to make that leap.

I first met Neil when we served on the board of the Secular Student Alliance decades ago, but his activism didn’t stop there. He was an Eagle Scout, yet when he lost his job at a Boy Scout-affiliated summer camp because he was openly non-religious, he decided to go public about that discrimination and drew attention to the cause. He also served as Board Chair of Camp Quest and Director of Camp Omni, two summer camps that cater to children of non-religious parents. He’s also just a really decent guy with fantastic values.

After the 2016 election of Donald Trump, Neil knew he wanted to get more involved in politics, especially because his local city council in Covina, California was led by conservative Christians. So he started speaking up at public meetings. He challenged any constitutional lapses he witnessed. He soon ran for a council position… and lost. But he learned from his mistakes. And in 2022, when he saw an opening to become City Treasurer, he ran for that office—against a two-term Republican—and won.

He’s now had four years to fight for taxpayers in his city and urge fiscal responsibility all around. I would argue he’s an island of sanity in an ocean full of conservative bullshit, making his role even more vital. He decided to run for another term this year, and his election took place the same day other major offices in California had their primaries.

This time around, though, the people who opposed him tried to make religion a central issue in the campaign... even though religion has nothing to do with the actual office Neil holds. And they did it through an outside PAC and a local church.

The outside PAC decided to create a scandal where none existed.

Last year, there was a local controversy because a Christian church had rented meeting space in a school district. That alone is legal and fine, as long as the church abides by the district’s rules. But there was reason to believe they weren’t. They were leaving storage items in the building, accessing the building outside their stated rental times, violating fire codes by blocking access to alarms and exits, and attempting to get other visitors to the school building to attend their services. All of that violated their contract.

Neil, as a private citizen, communicated his concerns with district officials over the course of several months, asking for public records and urging the district to follow its own policies.

He even mentioned that he would happily pay the rental costs for any LGBTQ-inclusive organization that wanted to take advantage of the district’s apparently lax policies.

Turns out The Satanic Temple was very interested in launching an After School Satan club in the district.

This shouldn’t be controversial (Screenshot via WMC)

So in another email to district officials last April, Neil took a more passive aggressive approach, serving as a mediator of sorts between district officials and The Satanic Temple leadership.

I told them [The Satanic Temple] of how accommodating you are to rental groups, and my offer to sponsor and pick up the costs for an inclusive group to use rental space. The Satanic Temple is very interested in starting to use the facility to meet right away, including the same ability to display banners and other promotional materials on campus during their rental that I have documented you allowing for other rental groups.

…

Please keep me in the loop on the best ways to make payment on the hours requested once they are booked. Again I will happily pick up the costs for the Multi purpose room on Saturday evenings. Or any of the surrounding classrooms on Sunday mornings.

Beautiful. Chef’s kiss. Love it.

It was a perfectly generous, non-controversial thing to do since school districts that allow outside groups to rent space can’t discriminate on the basis of religion.

But more to the point: None of this had anything to do with his government job. (I will also remind you that The Satanic Temple doesn’t believe in Satan, nor do they indoctrinate students. The clubs are just ways for kids to enjoy art and science and crafts.)

But some right-wing “Women Against Abuse PAC” soon sent out mailers to voters attempting to link Neil with those evil evil Satanists. (I’ve redacted personal information in the image below.)

That mailer, which took his emails completely out of context, said Neil “demands” this club open in the district, which he wasn’t doing. It said he offered to pay for Satanists to “recruit our kids at local high school,” which is not how the group works at all. (The critics must be thinking of Christians.) It also included a random image of an older man and younger boy with red horns (?!?)…

Just ridiculous stuff. Neil later posted the full exchange between him and district officials on his campaign site for anyone who wanted the complete picture.

But it didn’t stop there.

The other side of the mailer suggested he was following teenage girls he didn’t know on Instagram. The mailer highlighted words a “concerned parent” expressed at a city council meeting: “Disturbing” and “inappropriate.”

Neil had an explanation for that, too: When he launched his re-election campaign, his team did some basic social media work:

Early in the campaign, volunteers helping set up the account were instructed to follow people already engaged with accounts related to Covina politics and community organizations. As the account grew, Instagram also recommended additional local accounts connected through mutual follows and engagement, including activity around the February 9th “Good Company” video, which received well over 100,000 views. Some of those suggested accounts were followed as part of that early effort to build local visibility.

At no point did anyone target minors, nor was there any inappropriate intent or behavior involved. This was about Instagram follow requests, not communication and not physically following anyone. The account has only been used for campaign purposes, and messages are limited to normal campaign activity, such as coordinating yard sign delivery.

Instagram does not publicly identify accounts by age, and many accounts do not clearly identify who operates them or include a photo. After the concern was raised, I reviewed the account activity and invited anyone with specific concerns to contact me directly so accounts could be removed or blocked if needed.

Teen account protections also limit unsolicited interactions with minors, and there is no evidence of inappropriate communication from the account. I have also since removed all other admins from the page, leaving only myself to avoid any future mistake or oversight.

What is being portrayed as something sinister has a straightforward explanation rooted in how social media campaigns commonly build local visibility and connections when starting a new account.

So… nothing nefarious at all. For what it’s worth, I get similar recommendations to follow accounts on Instagram and TikTok — it’s virtually impossible to vet everyone on the other side, and if you’re a campaign just looking for engagement with like-minded people, it’s easier to click follow on everyone who’s recommended to you.

It wasn’t just the mailer that was a concern though. There was a local church giving a boost to his opponent, TJ Nass.

During a service at the Hearts On Fire Church back in March, the pastor brought Nass onstage so that everyone was aware he was running for office and deserving of prayer. The pastor implied that church members should vote for him, in direct violation of the (currently toothless) Johnson Amendment.

That pastor later said during his sermon, “We’re praying this brother [TJ Nass] gets voted into office as the county treasurer—be a blessing, be used by God.”

These are local races where a few hundred votes could sway everything, so there was serious concern about how that mailer and the church endorsement would affect the race. Even though Neil, as Treasurer, was doing an excellent job by all measures.

Yet despite all those attempts to sway the vote in the other direction, Neil won his re-election bid.

He didn’t just eke out a win either; he got more votes and a wider margin of victory than he did in 2022. The race hasn’t been officially called yet, but this lead appears to be insurmountable when you factor in how many votes might be outstanding.

Neil declared (unofficial) victory a few days after the election ended.

I asked him yesterday how he felt about overcoming those obstacles. He noted that the same debates we see about Christian Nationalism on a larger scale are also present in local politics but the reason he didn’t fall victim to those right-wing attacks was because he had a personal contact with many of his voters.

And when those voters saw the mailer, the PAC’s strategy backfired.

I was ‘lucky’ that it was a people powered campaign, and by that point I had already knocked on thousands of doors. Having those 1:1 conversations does make it harder for someone to take a mailer like that at face value.

What is clear is that it also activated a lot of people. Ballots started hitting mailboxes in the first couple days of May, around May 1st and 2nd. The mailer landed the following weekend, the day before Mother’s Day. The week after that was the busiest week for yard sign requests that we had all election long. The following campaign canvasses were also our biggest. I heard from a lot of people that they knew a local race was happening, but seeing something that over the top made them pay closer attention. Between the tone of the attack and the lengths the PAC went to in order to hide its funders and supporters, it became clear to many voters which side they wanted to support.

… Now that the dust is clearing on the vote count, it also appears those extra efforts made a real difference. Based on the Covina election records I have going back decades, this appears to be the largest vote total ever received by a candidate in any Covina race.

It’s really an incredible victory—and hopefully a launching point for other candidates in the future. There are numerous stories of religion infiltrating Covina politics that I didn’t mention in this piece, but they won’t change unless better people get voted in. Neil is a shining example of how that can happen.

After this election, though, there is still a lot of debt to pay off, so if you’d like to help Neil out, you can contribute to the campaign here.

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