WASHINGTON (AP) — Long before running for Congress, Marty O’Donnell was an award-winning music composer for the popular “Halo” video game franchise.
His work drew legions of fans to an online forum, which the Nevada Republican has tried to turn into a galvanizing force as he tries to unseat a Democrat in a Las Vegas area district that could help decide House control. O’Donnell has served as the group’s de facto leader, referring to himself as its “benevolent dictator” while tapping its members for campaign cash and harnessing their enthusiasm in his bid. The campaign held a two-day event for forum members this month at a casino that included a video game tournament, panel discussions and speeches.
There is another side, however, to what is known as “The Marty Army.”
An Associated Press review of thousands of posts made on the forum between 2022 and 2026 found racial slurs, minimizations of Nazi Germany and defenses of white nationalist conspiracy theories.
“It wasn’t a couple of crazies. The popular sentiment was, ‘Yes, slavery should be legal,’” said Deacon Dameron, a former group member who said O’Donnell banned him for calling another user a “dork.”
Many views espoused in the forum, which is controlled by O’Donnell and his handpicked moderators, are at odds with some of the values articulated by the candidate and his campaign. For example, O’Donnell has staunchly defended Israel and condemned bigotry.
In a statement, campaign spokesman Keith Schipper said O’Donnell “has zero tolerance for hate” in his forum. Since becoming aware of the issue in the spring, the campaign “dedicated a staffer to monitor” and “remove people that spew racist and antisemitic vitriol,” Schipper said. “Unfortunately, some posts have been missed over the years.”
Schipper said nearly 200 users have been banned “because of hateful rhetoric, including many of the people flagged by the Associated Press. Marty’s support of Israel is unequivocal and, as seen in various interviews and online posts, he will not tolerate the rise of antisemitism in our country. Marty will continue to fight bigotry, misinformation, and hate toward Israel because it is the right and moral thing to do.”
O’Donnell, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump, is running against four-term Rep. Susie Lee in the Nov. 3 election as Republicans look to hang onto their razor-thin majority. In a sign of how Republicans are triaging their chances in a tough environment, they pulled back spending this week in a handful of congressional races, including O’Donnell’s.
From ‘Halo’ to emoji slurs
Most of the chat group’s comments concern video games and gaming strategies. A section is reserved for questions about O’Donnell’s work on “Halo” games. After O’Donnell announced his first run for Congress in 2024, when he finished fourth in the party primary, some discussions centered around news and policy.
Many of the offensive and controversial remarks came in freewheeling replies to otherwise anodyne comments about current events, politics or games.
In May 2022, for example, a member wrote, “WE STAND WITH MARTY.” Others reacted to the post using letter emoji to spell out — incorrectly — a racial slur for Black people. More soon chimed in, using emoji letters to invoke another anti-Black slur. Users were likely restricted from properly spelling out such words because, by design, the platform prevents emoji from being used more than once in reaction to a post.
During a January 2025 discussion concerning free speech, a forum member expressed a desire to use a racial slur but refrained because “that’s not the attention Marty wants.” Dameron, the former group member, and another former user said posters relied on coded language because more overt racist comments were likely to draw scrutiny from moderators. The other user spoke on condition of anonymity over fears of retaliation.
“The Marty Army” began as a fan forum
“The Marty Army” began as an inside joke.
Developers of “Halo” created the chat room in 2001 on a website devoted to the game. The name they chose was meant to invoke a club for rabid fans of the glam rock band Kiss. O’Donnell joined the chat group and assumed control of the forum.
He relocated it to Discord, a popular online platform. His candidate website contains a link to the Discord chat group, which he has also publicized from his account on the social media platform X.
“Hey all! If you’d like to be part of my run for Congress, you can be part of Marty’s Army,” O’Donnell said in an X post after he launched his 2024 campaign.
O’Donnell has stated repeatedly that users who espouse racist or antisemitic views will be banned. He also threatened, at times, to delete posts.
The AP found some users who espoused Nazi sympathies were kicked off the forum, but many of their posts remain.
A user suggested in March 2024 that the Nazis “did some good things” that were “completely overshadowed by the terrible things they did.”
Another that month asked, “Was Hitler really an evil guy?”
“Like aside from the Holocaust,” the user added, “did he really even do anything wrong?”
In February, a third member posted, “Heil Hitler.”
O’Donnell said he wore a Mussolini mask
Current and historical fascist figures have also drawn approval.
O’Donnell wrote on the forum that he rejects fascism. But he also shared a photo of himself wearing what he said was a mask of Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator and key Hitler ally, that he wore to a Halloween party.
O’Donnell’s campaign denied he dressed up as Mussolini.
“This mask was part of a scary Halloween costume nearly two decades ago. It was not labeled a Mussolini mask when he bought it nor was he dressed up as Mussolini for the holiday,” Schipper said. “He purchased it because it was the ugliest, creepy mask on the shelf. He jokingly referred to it as a ‘Mussolini mask’ years later because he realized it vaguely looked like Mussolini.”
O’Donnell stated this year that he had been unaware of the resurgence of antisemitism. He told a conservative news outlet in September that he thought “that antisemitism is something we don’t have to worry about anymore.”
“I guess it just went under the surface and it has been percolating there,” he added in the interview with the Washington Reporter, which was founded by Republican political strategists.
O’Donnell made the comment after the news site Jewish Insider reported that he hosted Charles Cornish-Dale, a far-right influencer with Nazi sympathies, on his own podcast, “The Marty O’Donnell Show.”
O’Donnell pledged to ban those who espouse antisemitism
In the spring, O’Donnell warned users on the forum that if there was “even a hint of antisemitism” the offending member would be “instantly banned.”
Users responded to his post with an emoji of an exaggerated nose and “GOY,” a sometimes disparaging Yiddish term for non-Jews.
Some anti-hate groups view the use of the nose emoji as antisemitic, while goy is a term that has been appropriated by those who espouse antisemitic views.
Wendy Melillo, an associate professor of journalism at American University who researches extremist chat rooms, said such comments were clearly “coded antisemitic hate speech.”
Melillo said other posts she reviewed were more explicit.
“There is nothing coded,” she said, “about ‘Heil Hitler.’”
Some members of “The Marty Army” are aware the forum could pose a liability.
In 2024, a user wrote that O’Donnell’s political career could face trouble “if someone does a vulnerability study and they find this server.”