Ben Klassen - Political Career

Political Career

Klassen served Broward County in the Florida House of Representatives from November 1966- March 1967, running on an anti-busing, anti-government platform. He campaigned for election to the Florida Senate in 1967, but was defeated. That same year, he was Vice Chairman of an organization in Florida which supported George Wallace for president.

Klassen was a member of the John Birch Society, at one point operating an American Opinion bookstore. But he became disillusioned with the Society because of its tolerant position toward Jews. Klassen eventually left the organization after writing a letter to its chairman stating that the Society did not have the audacity to address the "Jewish issue" and requesting a refund of his $1,000 lifetime membership fee.

In November 1970, Klassen, along with Austin Davis, created the Nationalist White Party. The party platform was directed at White Christians and was explicitly religious and racial in nature; the first sentence of the party's fourteen point program is "We believe that the White Race was created in the Image of the Lord..." The logo of the Nationalist White Party was a "W" with a crown and halo over it. That same logo would be used three years later as the logo of the Church of the Creator.

Less than a year after he created the Nationalist White Party, Klassen began expressing apprehension about Christianity to his connections through letters. These letters were not well received and effectively ended the influence of the Nationalist White Party.