On January 25 2023, an Imgur account shared a screenshot of two posts from Twitter, one of which was attributed to failed Republican political candidate Jeff Younger (@JeffYoungerTX) on the topic of the “political power” of women and “single mothers”:
At the bottom of the post, the submitter included a direct link to the post shown in the image. It was shared to Mastodon by far-right researcher @[email protected] on January 24 2023, and text above a purported screenshot of Younger’s tweet read:
Fact Check
Claim: In January 2023, Jeff Younger (@JeffYoungerTX) tweeted: “The political power of single women, especially single mothers, must be diminished in order to regain traditional values, traditional family, and to reestablish social order.”
Description: In January 2023, Jeff Younger (@JeffYoungerTX) tweeted: ‘The political power of single women, especially single mothers, must be diminished in order to regain traditional values, traditional family, and to reestablish social order.’ The tweet was shared by multiple users across various platforms and was not doctored or fabricated.
The Christian fascists are telling you what the next phase is in rolling back human rights and installing a deeply genocidal fascist regime in America.
On Twitter, several readers shared screenshots (not retweets) of the post attributed to Younger:
The screenshot in the Mastodon post was rendered with a “night theme” background, white text on a black background. Screenshots in the tweets above had black text on a white background, diminishing the chance the tweet was out-of-context satire — a common mistake.
However, Younger exists and was the subject of a previous fact check of ours and attendant viral notoriety. In March 2022, Younger received a less-than-welcoming reception from students at the University of Texas during a scheduled appearance:
Google Trends data indicated “Breakout” levels of search interest for Younger on January 24 and 25 2023. Searches included “Jeff Younger Texas,” “Jeff Younger TX,” “Jeff Younger Twitter,” and “who is Jeff Younger?”
Initial searching on Twitter primarily returned random mentions of Younger, amid a variety of searches. We located the tweet itself, which was real (and is archived here):
Younger ran unsuccessfully for election to the Texas House of Representatives on an anti-transgender platform in 2022; by early 2023, he was perhaps best known for tweeting and appearing on Fox News in order to rail on his ex-wife and at least one of their children:
A Texas father at the center of a bitter, years-long gender transition case claims his ex-wife had moved to California planning to “chemically castrate” their 9-year-old son, James, who identifies as a girl named “Luna.”
Jeff Younger, a dad of two who unsuccessfully ran for the Texas statehouse campaigning on an anti-trans platform, appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Thursday and shared a video that purports to show his son identifying himself as a girl.
A popular January 25 2023 Imgur post included a Mastodon screenshot of a tweet attributed to failed Republican candidate Jeff Younger (@JeffYoungerTX). In that tweet, Younger asserted that the “political power of single women, especially single mothers, must be diminished in order to regain traditional values, traditional family, and to reestablish social order.” Despite its popularity in screenshot form, the tweet was neither doctored nor fabricated as satire.
- "The political power of single women, especially single mothers, must be diminished in order to regain traditional values, traditional family, and to reestablish social order." | Imgur
- "The political power of single women, especially single mothers, must be diminished in order to regain traditional values, traditional family, and to reestablish social order." | Mastodon
- "The political power of single women, especially single mothers, must be diminished in order to regain traditional values, traditional family, and to reestablish social order." | The Volatile Mermaid/Twitter
- "The political power of single women, especially single mothers, must be diminished in order to regain traditional values, traditional family, and to reestablish social order." | Twitter
- Republican Candidate Booed by University of North Texas Students
- Jeff Younger TX | Google Trends
- "The political power of single women, especially single mothers, must be diminished in order to regain traditional values, traditional family, and to reestablish social order." | Twitter
- "The political power of single women, especially single mothers, must be diminished in order to regain traditional values, traditional family, and to reestablish social order." | Jeff Younger TX/Twitter (archived)