Michael Cassidy, a 35-year-old resident of Mississippi, went to the Iowa State Capitol on Thursday to attack the holiday display from the Satanic Temple (TST) that had been on the first floor of the building since last week. Cassidy knocked down and beheaded the display’s Baphomet figure.
After he finished his vandalism, Cassidy surrendered to an Iowa State Patrol officer standing nearby. He has been charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief. If convicted, he could face a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a fine of $2,560.
“I think it was a real act of cowardice,” TST co-founder Lucien Greaves said in an interview with CNN on Thursday night. “… When politicians do this, and my understanding is that this is somebody running for public office, they’re really yielding to the whims of an uncomprehending, undemocratic mob.”
Cassidy has unsuccessfully run for office twice in Mississippi, both times as a Republican. In 2022, he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Mississippi, losing to the incumbent in a primary runoff. This year, Cassidy ran for the Mississippi House of Representatives, losing to the Democratic candidate in the November general election.
Cassidy, a former Navy pilot, grew up in Virginia. He earned an undergraduate degree in history from Virginia Tech University in 2009. In 2018, he received a liberal arts degree from Harvard University’s extension service.
The TST display had become a focus of outrage on rightwing media sites and in related social media circles, especially after Fox News ran a story on it. On Tuesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a statement calling the TST display “absolutely objectionable.” The governor did not support calls to remove the display, saying “the best response to objectionable speech is more speech” and inviting “all those of faith” to join her “in praying over the Capitol and recognizing the nativity scene that will be on display — the true reason for the season.”
Because the Capitol permits displays from religious groups, like the nativity scene, it must allow displays from all religions. TST is a recognized religious organization.
TST is often confused with the Church of Satan, with which it is not associated. TST was founded in 2013 by a small group of atheists, and on its site TST explains members do not believe in “the existence of Satan or the supernatural.”
Members follow the temple’s seven fundamental tenets, which focus on rationality, compassion and the “struggle for justice.” TST has routinely applied to place displays on public property when other religions are invited to do so, in order to defend the ideas of both freedom of religion and freedom from religion.
In an interview with the Sentinel, a conservative news and opinion site that launched a fundraising campaign for Cassidy after his act of vandalism, Cassidy said he came to Des Moines and attacked the display to “awaken Christians to the anti-Christian acts promoted by our government.”
Cassidy has used that sort of rhetoric in both his unsuccessful runs for office. As a candidate for Congress in 2022, he told a Mississippi newspaper that “The United States is going downhill since the removal of Jesus Christ.”
During that run, Cassidy was attacked by other Republicans as being too far left because he proposed a Medicare-for-all approach, similar to the one championed by Bernie Sanders. He lost the Republican runoff election that year by almost 40 percentage points.
Although he was virtually unknown outside eastern Mississippi at the beginning of this week, Cassidy is now a celebrity in rightwing circles. The Sentinel’s online fundraiser reached its $20,000 goal in a matter of hours. Turning Point USA, a pro-Trump group aimed at college students, praised Cassidy and contributed $10,000. Ron DeSantis tweeted that he was going to contribute to the fundraiser.
Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a “religion” by the federal government. I’ll chip in to contribute to this veteran’s legal defense fund.
Good prevails over evil — that’s the American spirit. https://t.co/p1vmTcl8c9
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 15, 2023
On Friday, Cassidy announced he has “opened the legal fund donation back up.” He said he did so, because he had been “notified of more potential legal charges.” Cassidy did not say where this information came from the Iowa State Patrol has said nothing about additional charges. The fundraising link is included in the pinned tweet at the top of his X account, @VoteCassidy.
