Barack Obama Is a Republican (Yes, Really)

A candidate named Barack Obama Mandela is running as a Republican in the 2024 California Senate primary, and has the support of 2 percent of likely voters according to a recent poll.

The contest comes after the death of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein in September at age 90. California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler, who has already said she won't defend the seat, to complete the congressional term.

California has an open primary system in which all candidates run together, regardless of party affiliation, with the two top-performing candidates going through to the general election. The primary election is scheduled to take place on March 5.

Mandela was born in Long Beach, California, according to Ballotpedia, which tracks political candidates, and studied at the University of California. He was originally named Mark Hardie but changed his name to Barack Obama in 2014, telling The Times of Israel, for whom he wrote a number of blogs, that it would help him "speak out in support of Israel" by matching the name of the then-American president. It is unclear at what point he also added "Mandela" to his name.

The Times of Israel reported that Mandela converted to Reform Judaism in 1995, then Orthodox Judaism two years later, after which he moved to Israel and joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). After being released in 2002, he returned to America and served in the U.S. military for three years.

In one of his blogs, written under the name Barack Mandela, he claimed to have "served in three IDF units: Sayeret Golani, the Legal Unit (Praklitut) and the 7th Brigade of the Armored Division as a driver of the Merkava battle tank" and lived "in various Israeli cities and towns, including Kibbutz Hafetz Chayyim, Ramat Gan and Jerusalem." Newsweek has not independently verified these claims.

The Times of Israel reported that Mandela had written a hip-hop translation of the Bible, which Newsweek found on Amazon under author name Mark Charles Hardie.

In 2014, Black Hitler: Kobe-Lebron Goebbels Conquers America was published by a Barack Obama Mandela, also identified as Mark Charles Hardie by Amazon.

According to its synopsis: "In this seductive thrill-ride, Kobe-Lebron Goebbels, who becomes dictator of the United States of America, renames the country The Fourth Reich. He then establishes a white power regime throughout the nation."

The synopsis also bizarrely claims: "BLACK HITLER is one of the most important books ever written since Adolph Hitler's MEIN KAMPF."

A Public Policy Institute of California poll, of 1,395 likely voters conducted between October 3 and October 19, showed Mandela with 2 percent support, substantially behindthe leading candidates, House Democrats Adam Schiff and Katie Porter, with 21 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

There are currently 51 Democrat-affiliated senators, giving the party a slim majority over the 49 Republicans after a much-anticipated "red wave" failed to materialize in the November 2022 midterm elections.

However, last month, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin announced he won't be seeking reelection in 2024, giving the Republicans an opportunity in a red state.

Newsweek has reached out to two accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that appear to be linked to Mandela for comment.