WASHINGTON (AP) – Long before candidate for CongressMarty O’Donnell was an award-winning music composer for the popular “Halo” video game franchise.
His work attracted legions of fans to an online forum, which the Nevada Republican has tried to turn into a galvanizing force as he tries to unseat a Democrat in a Las Vegas-area district that could help decide Home control. O’Donnell served as the group’s de facto leader, describing himself as its “benevolent dictator,” while appealing to its members for campaign money and harnessing their enthusiasm in his candidacy. The campaign hosted a two-day event for forum members at a casino this month, including a video game tournament, panel discussions and speeches.
There is, however, another side to what we call the “Marty Army.”
An Associated Press analysis of thousands of messages posted to the forum between 2022 and 2026 found racist slurs, minimizations of Nazi Germany and defenses of white nationalist conspiracy theories.
“It wasn’t a few crazy people. The popular sentiment was, ‘Yes, slavery should be legal,'” said Deacon Dameron, a former member of the group who said O’Donnell banned him for calling another user a “moron.”
Many of the views expressed in the forum, controlled by O’Donnell and his hand-picked moderators, are at odds with some of the values expressed by the candidate and his campaign. For example, O’Donnell fiercely defended Israel and condemned bigotry.
In a statement, campaign spokesman Keith Schipper said O’Donnell “has zero tolerance for hate” on his forum. Since becoming aware of the problem in the spring, the campaign “has assigned a staff member to monitor” and “remove people who are spewing racist and anti-Semitic vitriol,” Schipper said. “Unfortunately, some messages have been missed over the years. »
Schipper said nearly 200 users have been banned “due to hateful speech, including many reported by the Associated Press. Marty’s support for Israel is unequivocal and, as shown in various interviews and online posts, he will not tolerate the rise of anti-Semitism in our country. Marty will continue to fight bigotry, misinformation and hatred toward Israel because it is the right and moral thing to do.”
O’Donnell, who is approved by President Donald Trump, is running against four-term Rep. Susie Lee in the November 3 election while the Republicans seek to maintain their slim majority. A sign of how the Republicans assess their chances in a difficult environment, they cut their spending this week in a handful of congressional races, including O’Donnell’s.
From “Halo” to emoji insults
Most of the comments in the discussion group relate to video games and gaming strategies. One section is reserved for questions about O’Donnell’s work on “Halo” games. After O’Donnell announced his first run for Congress in 2024, when he finished fourth in the party’s primaries, some discussions focused on current events and politics.
Most of the offensive and controversial remarks came in response to otherwise innocuous comments about current affairs, politics or gaming.
In May 2022, for example, one member wrote, “WE SUPPORT MARTY.” Others reacted to the post by using a letter emoji to – incorrectly – spell out a racial slur towards black people. Others quickly chimed in, using emoji letters to invoke another anti-Black slur. Users were likely not allowed to spell these words correctly because, by design, the platform prevents emoji from being used more than once in reaction to a post.
During a January 2025 discussion about free speech, a forum member expressed a desire to use a racial slur, but refrained because “that’s not the attention Marty wants.” Dameron, the former group member, and another former user said the posters relied on coded language because more overt racist comments were likely to attract the attention of moderators. The other user spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“The Marty Army” started as a fan forum
“Marty’s Army” started as an inside joke.
The developers of “Halo” created the chat room in 2001 on a website devoted to the game. The name they chose was meant to evoke a club for rabid fans of the glam rock band Kiss. O’Donnell joined the newsgroup and took control of the forum.
He uploaded it to Discord, a popular online platform. His candidate website contains a link to the Discord chat group, which he also posted from his account on social media platform X.
“Hey everyone! If you want to be part of my run for Congress, you can be part of Marty’s Army,” O’Donnell said in an X-post after launching his 2024 campaign.
O’Donnell has repeatedly stated that users who espouse racist or anti-Semitic views will be banned. He also sometimes threatened to delete posts.
The AP found that some users espousing Nazi sympathies were kicked off the forum, but many of their posts remained.
One user suggested in March 2024 that the Nazis “did good things” that were “completely overshadowed by the terrible things they did.”
Another that month asked: “Was Hitler really a bad guy?” »
“Apart from the Holocaust,” the user added, “did he really do anything wrong?”
In February, a third member posted “Heil Hitler.”
O’Donnell said he wore a Mussolini mask
Current and historical fascist figures also drew approval.
O’Donnell wrote on the forum that he rejects fascism. But he also shared a photo of himself wearing what he said was a mask of Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator and key Hitler ally, which he wore to a Halloween party.
O’Donnell’s campaign denied that he dressed up as Mussolini.
“This mask was part of a scary Halloween costume almost two decades ago. It was not labeled as a Mussolini mask when he purchased it nor was he dressed as Mussolini for the holiday,” Schipper said. “He bought it because it was the ugliest, scariest mask on the market. He jokingly called it years later a ‘Mussolini mask’ because he realized it vaguely resembled Mussolini.”
O’Donnell said this year that he was unaware of the resurgence of anti-Semitism. He told a conservative media outlet in September that he thinks “anti-Semitism is something we don’t have to worry about anymore.”
“I guess it just went under the surface and seeped in there,” he added in the interview with the Washington Reporter, founded by Republican political strategists.
O’Donnell made the comment after the Jewish Insider news site reported that he had hosted Charles Cornish-Dale, a far-right influencer with Nazi sympathies, on his own podcast, “The Marty O’Donnell Show.”
O’Donnell pledged to ban those who advocate anti-Semitism
In the spring, O’Donnell warned forum users that if there was “even a hint of anti-Semitism,” the offending member would be “banned immediately.”
Users responded to his post with an emoji of an exaggerated nose and “GOY,” a sometimes derogatory Yiddish term for non-Jews.
Some anti-hate groups consider the use of the nose emoji to be anti-Semitic, while goy is a term that has been appropriated by those espousing anti-Semitic views.
Wendy Melillo, an associate professor of journalism at American University who researches extremist chat rooms, said such comments were clearly “coded anti-Semitic hate speech.”
Melillo said other messages she reviewed were more explicit.
“There’s nothing coded,” she said, “about ‘Heil Hitler.’
Some members of “The Marty Army” are aware that the forum could constitute a handicap.
In 2024, one user wrote that O’Donnell’s political career could face problems “if someone does a vulnerability study and finds this server.”
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