Potential Wisconsin Senate candidate Scott Mayer in Islamophobic 2015 post: Something must be done ‘with this Muslim crap’

(4/24: This article has been edited to replace dead links with screenshots.)

This article contains multiple instances of Islamophobia. 

WisPolitics first reported Tuesday that Wisconsin businessman Scott Mayer is contemplating running against Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) in 2024. The potential candidate would have to reckon with his history of racist, Islamophobic social media posts.

In a bizarre 2015 Facebook post, Mayer put up a location tag of him at a Waffle House in northwest South Carolina, with the caption “How long is the world going to continue to put up with this Muslim crap. [sic] We must do something about it.”

Facebook screenshot taken on March 17, 2023. The post has since been deleted.

Another post attacking Muslims went up in 2016, which was a Tweety Bird meme which read “So what if Muslims are ‘offended’!! Over 3,000 Americans were murdered on 9/11 in the name of Islam and we’re supposed to cater to them? I don’t think so!!”

Facebook screenshot taken on March 17, 2023. The post has since been deleted.

Mayer is the chairman and CEO of QPS Employment Group, a staffing and recruitment company that he founded in 1985 and sold in 2021. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Mayer has been talking to prominent Republicans in Wisconsin like Sen. Ron Johnson (R) and former state party Chairman Paul Farrow about a Senate run, and he claims he will be a “very viable candidate.”

According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Mayer has been an active GOP donor for years, having committed $20,000 to former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in 2021 and $10,000 to Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Dan Kelly in December.

Kleefisch is another potential GOP candidate to take on Baldwin, looking to bounce back from a loss to Tim Michels in the Republican gubernatorial primary last August.