Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Dale Mensing, a congressional candidate who’s backed by the California Republican Party, wrote that the chemtrails conspiracy theory "is one of the three primary issues” of his campaign and used a video from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as evidence.

Mensing is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman in the general election for California’s 2nd District for the third time. Mensing has the endorsement of the California Republican Party; additionally, he states on his website that he has endorsements from “the Del Norte County Republican Central Committee, the Marin County Republican Central committee, the Sonoma​ County Republican Central Committee and the Mendocino County Republican Central Committee.” (Those county campaign committees mention and/or link to Mensing’s website on their respective websites.)

Republican committees in California have backed Mensing even though he's stated that one of the “primary issues” of his campaign is chemtrails, referring to a conspiracy theory that’s been pushed by media personalities including Alex Jones.

Some references to chemtrails on Mensing’s website have been removed this week for unclear reasons. His main page previously featured “chemtrails” on his main page; that mention has since been removed (though his “chemtrails” subpage is still available). He also had a page about the California primary titled “June 5, 2018 Endorsements and Primary Campaign Points,” which stated that a “primary” point of his campaign was to “expose and eliminate chemtrails”; that page was up until recently but is now no longer available.

Mensing’s attention to the issue has been briefly noted outside of his website; for example, a May 8 article about the GOP primary in the Marin Independent Journal mentioned that Mensing “has a host of issues,” including “eliminating airplane chemtrails.”

The New York Times wrote in 2016 of chemtrails: “One persistent belief in some quarters is that the government -- or business, perhaps -- is deploying a fleet of jet aircraft to spray chemicals into the sky to control the population, food supply or other things. As evidence, they point to what they call ‘chemtrails,’ which are more commonly known as contrails, or condensation trails, produced at high altitudes as water vapor in jet engine exhaust condenses and freezes.” Scientists have repeatedly stated that there’s no evidence to support the chemtrails conspiracy theory.

Mensing has a page dedicated to chemtrails that states of the issue: “I have many questions and I know a few things. I know enough [to] tell the reader that dealing with chemtrails is one of the three primary issues of my campaign for the house of representatives. As I post these paragraphs, I plan to add more in the days and weeks to come.”

He also directed readers and potential voters to several videos related to chemtrails, including an August 2014 video on Alex Jones' YouTube channel. That video -- which is no longer available in its original location because YouTube has banned Jones’ channel, though an unofficial Infowars fan account has reposted it -- was titled “Government Weather Manipulation Exposed” and featured Jones pushing the chemtrails conspiracy theory (the video has been reposted to YouTube by an unofficial Infowars fan account).

In the Mensing-backed video, Jones said that “the globalists” are “playing God” and “they’re doing it with jet trails, with the chemicals, they’re doing it with these different microwave systems and relay towers that then resonate with it. They’ve got over-the-horizon radar, [that] is one reason they’re spraying this stuff. The point is, we need to know.”

Mensing did not respond to a request for comment by posting time.