Content warning: Homophobic and ableist slurs.
On March 3, state representative Jeff Shipley posted a photo from the Iowa House floor holding up a box of ivermectin. Specifically, the Republican from Fairfield was holding a box of apple-flavored IverCare paste. The label showed a horse silhouette and a feeding syringe.
“OTC ivermectin now being debated in the Iowa House,” Shipley captioned the photo on Facebook. Thirty minutes later, he updated: “Bill passes 64-30!! Parasites are very upset!”
For years, fringe medical personalities, rightwing influencers and the elected officials susceptible to both have spread misinformation about the effectiveness of ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, against COVID-19, cancer and other diseases it was not intended to treat, often promoting it as an alternative to vaccines and other proven treatments.
Indeed, easier access to ivermectin — the kind meant for humans — is included in Gov. Kim Reynolds’ “MAHA” bill, which passed both the Iowa House and Senate this spring. HF 2676 also bans certain food dyes and additives in school meals and vending machines, and pushes for federal limits to restrict people on food assistance from buying anything but designated “healthy” products.
It’s the kind of legislation Shipley has dreamed of advancing since he was first elected to the statehouse in 2018, beating Democratic incumbent Phil Miller by 37 votes. The pandemic saw the University of Iowa grad from Naperville, Illinois emerge as an outspoken anti-mask and anti-vax voice in the State Capitol, with a special disdain for margarine, chemtrails and LGBTQ people. A longtime admirer of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Shipley was made for this MAHA moment — even if he’s far from its most effective communicator.
“I’m voting ‘no’ on any additional spending unless it’s vitamin d therapy for elderly or beef and bacon for school kids,” he declared in 2022, adding this year, “The tyranny of depriving public school children the opportunities afforded by full-fat dairy must come to an immediate end.”
Like many of Shipley’s social media posts, the horse paste photo on March 3 drew both supportive and mocking comments. But the harshest words allegedly came from Shipley himself, after a member of the public from Cedar Falls called the District 87 representative to talk ivermectin.
“During the course of our phone call,” they recounted on Reddit, and later confirmed for Iowa Starting Line, “he [Shipley] asked if I think oncology works better, and I said yes, and he immediately said well ‘you sound like a r*tar*ed f*gg*t.’ I told him he shouldn’t refer to citizens that way, and he said nobody would care.”
Shipley confirmed the incident in an email to Little Village. “I never called him a name, I merely asked a rhetorical question [‘are you a…’],” Shipley said. “This person then became unglued, so I apologized.”
The state rep provided LV with a bulleted list of “Various examples of someone who is a retarded faggot (or fagtard for short).” On the list is, “A person who spends way too much time on reddit and publicly cries about being called a name by someone they were harassing.”
Shipley’s full statement to Little Village about the May 3 phone call
This person left me a very emotional voicemail related to ivermectin, saying I would be too spineless to call him back… so I returned his call. This person then blamed me personally for his loved one succumbing to cancer and was incredibly rude and antagonistic. In addition, he also blamed and attacked my friends and supporters, with whom he was interacting with in the FB comments. When he finally gave me a chance to speak, I explained that a person’s cancer care is between a patient and their physician, and that I’ve never made any claim about ivermectin as a treatment for any health condition. This person then went on an emotionally unhinged tirade about abortion — to which I asked a rhetorical question, “are you a…”
I never called him a name, I merely asked a rhetorical question. This person then became unglued, so I apologized. I found him on Facebook and liked one of his posts warning about the negative impact of AI on our culture and human ability to think, and I apologized again.
I never called him a name, I simply asked if he was…
I do not view the terms in question as any sort of ableist, homophobic, or derogatory slur, and I certainly did not speak to this person in any sort of hateful way.
Various examples of someone who is a retarded faggot (or fagtard for short)
- A person who is addicted to pornography
- A person who doesn’t shut up about bitcoin (less of a problem lately)
- A person who blames others for personal misfortunes brought upon himself
- A person who insists school children need access to sexually explicit and pornographic materials
- A man who advocates for abortion because he is a misogynist who is incapable of taking responsibility for his own actions
- A person who spends way too much time on reddit and publicly cries about being called a name by someone they were harassing.
- Steve Deace
I’m a firm believer of “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Apparently my words did in fact hurt this person very much, which was not my intent, so I apologized.
With Trump launching a holy crusade and plunging the world into WWIII — I would really hope people would place their energy on more pressing issues. The people who get bent out of shape and get their feelings hurt by words are not going to fare very well in life.
From Jeff.Shipley@legis.iowa.gov, sent April 16, 2026
In their Reddit post, the caller provided screenshots of a follow-up Facebook Messenger chat initiated by Shipley. Shipley starts off, “I’m sorry for calling you a name, but in my defense you were being super condescending and antagonistic. … Thank you for your comment on my post and furthering the public discussion! All the best, and my condolences again on the loss of your loved one.”
“Jeff, you called me a retarded faggot,” the Cedar Falls resident replies. “For talking about chemotherapy in lieu of horse paste.”
“Yes, and I’ve apologized,” Rep. Shipley writes back, then defends ivermectin and its new over-the-counter status. “If you want to blame other people for cancer, that’s not very fair either.”
Shipley continued, “A lot of people perish from chemotherapy as well…oncology is far from perfect unfortunately.”
An elected official using two slurs in a phone call with a citizen, then tracking them down on Facebook to make excuses for it, is notable, as is his “fagtard” list. But it’s also not out of character for the 37-year-old, who often fails to hide his disdain for folks who challenge his unpopular positions.
“These people need to grow up, they’re not serious,” Shipley said of Iowans who grilled Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks about rising healthcare costs at one of her rare in-person public town halls in November. “Even if there are problems with Medicaid, like, they’re just not showing any competency to govern. There’s a pretty thin line of human decency that’s standing in the way of these unhinged barbarians.”
A self-described “Public Health Hero” and “Servant to Archangel Michael, Prince of the Heavenly Host” who owns the domain peaceloveiowa.com, Shipley has made a habit of arguing with his critics since the early days of the pandemic. He threw all his support behind the viral physician/pastor Stella Immanuel, infamous for peddling hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as COVID cures. (Shipley calls Immanuel “a sniper in the Kingdom of God” and “a beautiful black voice generously offering comfort to an afflicted nation.”)
An Iowan named Katie who was battling Stage IV endometriosis called out Shipley’s support for Immanuel in a Facebook comment in 2020. Katie said she had donated to and volunteered for Shipley’s campaign in the past, but she couldn’t back Immanuel, who claims endometriosis is caused by having dream sex with demons and witches.
Replying, Shipley accused Katie of “total ego-identification with your illness,” apparently relishing the fact she’d had four surgeries and was still suffering. “Seems like the doctors treating you have no idea what they’re doing. Have you explored other theories of medicine?”
After Katie blocked him on Facebook, Shipley started posting about her on Twitter: “Honey I don’t know what to tell ya, but it sure ain’t angels causing you that,” and, “Can’t believe I even have to say this, but having sex with demons is NOT healthy for you.”
Shipley told Little Village he has no recollection of Katie, nor a record of her donating to him. “It’s not uncommon for people who suffer from victim-mentality (victim-complex) to often exaggerate details to further dramatize their feelings/sense of suffering,” he said.
There’s an aspect of trolling to his behavior, but Shipley’s also deadly serious. “Demons are real,” he posted to his Twitter, @JeffShipley77, in 2020. “They stalk the Earth seeking the ruin of souls. The wickedness and snares of the devil are everywhere, wreaking pain, misery and unspeakable suffering.” Also, “Dems rely on Satan for their health guidelines.”
Shipley may have a pet interest in alternative medicine and Christian mysticism, but his 2010 degree from UI was in political science. According to his Iowa Legislature profile, he works as a “Bubbling Brine Brothers Sauerkraut salesman, professional advocate, and stand-up comedian.” Shipley also breeds dachshunds and advertises them on Instagram. He currently sits on the House Education and Judiciary committees, serves as vice chair of the Higher Education and Government Oversight committees, and chairs the legislative council on International Relations.
On Twitter, now X, Shipley speculates wildly about the gold and silver markets, and even proposed legislation this session to compel the state treasurer to invest taxpayer funds in precious metals and exclude gold and silver from income tax, as well as issue gold, silver and platinum coins “commemorating the state of Iowa and the tenure of governor Kimberly Reynolds.”
He praises authoritarians Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin, thinks it’s “time for Ukraine’s unconditional surrender” to Russia, and ponders “a regime change war against Canada” — though he’s come out against Trump’s war in Iran.
Among Shipley’s other contributions these past couple sessions were a bill to ban mifepristone and other abortion drugs in Iowa with criminal enforcement, plus a bill to codify life beginning at fertilization (the ominously numbered House File 666); bans on “weather engineering devices” and “geoengineering” emissions (which he blames for the deadly floods in Texas last summer); a ban on fluoride in private and public water supplies; a ban on paid surrogate mother arrangements (a retweet by Shipley calls surrogacy “worse than slavery”); a bill to legalize certain psychoactive drugs (“including but not limited to psilocybin and peyote”) on religious grounds; a bill to exempt dietary supplements from sales tax and one to fund hyperbaric oxygen treatment for veterans; and, notoriously, a bill to close the Iowa City archive and research center of the State Historical Society, which has prompted lawsuits and protests.
Abortion makes women crazy and SSRIs make men impotent. Atheist teachers are fomenting hate in “the West.” Unvaccinated women may experience “menstrual irregularities” after spending extended time in the proximity of vaccinated women. Sex and gender are binary and irrevocable, that’s just common sense, but “gut feelings” are also maybe memories psychically channeled from the future. Trans people are violent, dumb and degenerate — and could probably be cured with a good psilocybin trip, or maybe another bill rolling back their civil rights protections.
“If a person had a malignant sarcoma, would the proper treatment be affirmation?” he asked on the House floor in 2022, after “calling on the Holy Spirit” to cure Iowans with “identity disorders.”
He posts things like “kids in school shouldn’t be instructed in viewing pornography, sending nude selfies, and using buttplugs,” as if that was a thing happening in Iowa classrooms and not just an absurd pretext for cracking down on cultural acceptance of LGBTQ+ people.
“When Democrats say conspiracy theory, remember they just mean any established facts that don’t support a communist agenda,” warned Shipley, who also proposed legislation this year inquiring whether the state should buy up public utilities.
Shipley admits he was “addicted to pornography as a young man” and “that stunted my sexual maturity.” He’s also “suffered affliction” to cannabis and coffee, which he says “distort the sensitive beauty of the human body as Temple of the Lord.”
In 2024, Shipley was the subject of an ethics complaint for saying the head of Annie’s Foundation, a Des Moines nonprofit opposing book bans, should be investigated for distributing “obscene books to minors.”
He admitted, “I should have stopped once I said the complainant needed to be investigated. It’s not my job to judge the law.” In his own defense, however, Shipley cited a Facebook comment Sara Hayden Parris left him in which she points out, “look, just cuz it makes YOUR naughty bits tingle, doesn’t mean it’s porn.” Parris, unlike Shipley, isn’t a state representative.
Iowans opposing private school vouchers are “rambling” and “incoherent” by Shipley’s estimation, but he “can’t wrap my head around” the concept of a sex abuse prevention program for grade schoolers, because it would surely destroy “the innocence of childhood.”
“Mandatory vaccinations are for Democrats,” though “It’s hard to discern whether Dem leadership is just incredibly stupid, or deliberately evil” on the issue. No one cares about RFK Jr. rolling back public health recommendations because “Only vaccine zealots and paid shills give a hoot about the hep B jab.”
The representative from District 87 often retweets accounts promoting esoteric spiritual and wellness advice — everyone from David Icke (a Holocaust denier famous for accusing various world leaders of being lizard people) to Raw Egg Nationalist (@Babygravy9, a Great Replacement Theory advocate who has quoted Mein Kampf and promoted eugenics) to anonymous handles with AI profile pictures.
“The ‘Lion’s Roar’ is the frequency of radical sovereignty,” reads a repost from @GalacticArrival — a frequent inspiration for Shipley, who has a lion emoji beside his X display name. “You are the king and queen of your own reality, answerable only to the Source.”
“Crown yourself like Napoleon did,” reads another from @BenWilsonTweets. “Give yourself full authority to make decisions on the kingdom of your life. Don’t rely on the authority of other fellow mortals.”
While Shipley appears willing to ride or die for his fringe causes, he’s not above bending. Establishing a medicinal psilocybin mushroom program in Iowa is what motivated him to seek office in the first place, but when Gov. Reynolds vetoed a bill last session that would have legalized the psychiatric use of synthetic psilocybin in Iowa pending FDA approval, he called it a “great decision.” Despite voting for the bill, Shipley said he’s only into “natural psilocybin that God has given us.” A different psilocybin bill failed to get a vote this session.
Earlier this year, HHS Secretary RFK Jr., caved on one of the Make America Healthy Again movement’s central concerns: glyphosate. After Trump issued an executive order defending companies like Bayer (formerly Monsanto) that produce the herbicide, Kennedy shocked many of his acolytes by defending Trump’s EO, saying glyphosate was a necessary evil to keep up with U.S. agricultural needs.
Shipley condemned his 2020 primary opponent for accepting a donation from Monsanto and criticized the corporation for poisoning Iowans as recently as April 6, but hasn’t acknowledged his hero’s glyphosate flip-flop publicly. Asked by Little Village if he was disappointed, Shipley said, “Disappointment is a low-agency emotion, so no I don’t feel that.” He added he’s frustrated with “Dem/Lefty types who strenuously oppose giving a legal liability shield to pesticide manufactures [sic] but then attack and slander” vaccine skeptics.
If the attacks and slander ever get under Shipley’s skin, you won’t know it.
“Men shouldn’t cry in public,” he declared on Twitter after the Minneapolis mayor was seen wiping tears at George Floyd’s memorial service. “Real men” don’t make “public displays of weakness.”
“I cry in private. Typically at night under the moon. I offer my sadness to God … Sometimes when I really tap into the deep chasm of sadness that exists within me, I’ll use my tears over my face and chest as a purification ritual. Again, no one needs to see that.”
The weapons-grade cringe and weaponized incompetence of a leader like Shipley isn’t unique to elected officials from Fairfield, nor is it limited to the Republican Party. But the consequences of attacking mRNA research, undermining vaccines and neglecting the biggest life-and-death issues — hunger, housing and healthcare, to name a few — in exchange for shooting whole milk promos with Kid Rock and launching self-indulgent projects like the Center for Intellectual Freedom (which Shipley considers the “best thing to happen to UI since Caitlin Clark”) puts millions of lives in jeopardy, in this earthly realm. Measles has surged across the nation, and the horrors of polio are poised to make a comeback, all while Iowa languishes in a cancer crisis that has nothing to do with chemtrails and fluoride.
Shipley is up for reelection this year. He will defend his District 87 seat (which represents Van Buren County and parts of Jefferson and Henry) against Democrat Thomas O’Donnell of rural Keosauqua.
O’Donnell is running on a platform of raising the minimum wage, uplifting rural schools, ending the “private school voucher ripoff,” and “break[ing] corporate ag’s grip on rural Iowa.” A former Des Moines Register reporter and freelance writer on topics of plant biology, supercomputing, physics and nuclear science, O’Donnell is now the secretary of Science Iowa, “a nonprofit that promotes science in the public interest, publicly supported research and evidence-based policy.”
Pretty wacky stuff.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s May 2026 issue.
