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Political tensions are reaching a fever pitch in the U.S., with voters stealing campaign signs of opposing parties, warring with friends and family over political views on social media, and even threatening violence at poll centers as early voting kicks off in 30 states.
This tension pushed Idaho Wild Real Estate broker-owner Mark Fitzgerald to launch a controversial online campaign aimed at Harris-Walz voters in his state: “Free listing (no commission) for any liberal who will be moving out of Idaho. We are here to help you return to your safe spaces. Email info@idahowild.com for details.”
Meanwhile, Trump-Vance voters could get a free AR-15 gun if they used Fitzgerald’s services to move to the state.
“There’s no discrimination here. This is about people who have just gone to the extreme as far as their beliefs, and they’ve just become wicked,” Fitzgerald told the Idaho Statesman on Wednesday. “The liberalism of today is not the liberalism of decades past. I’ve gotten to the point where … I don’t want that around. I don’t want liberalism around my family. I don’t want it around my community.”
The month-old campaign hasn’t attracted any takers; however, the post has become a minor battleground for Boise voters on both sides of the political spectrum.
The majority of commenters praised Fitzgerald’s offer, with one person saying they’d send the broker-owner seller referrals and another noting they couldn’t wait to get rid of “liberal communists” across the state. The remaining share of commenters lambasted Fitzgerald for his campaign, saying it was “very un-Christian” and could be a violation of the Fair Housing Rights Act.
“Do you just completely ignore the Fair Housing Act and think it doesn’t apply to you or are you not educated on it and the code and ethics Realtors must abide by?” wrote commenter Market Updates.
The Fair Housing Rights Act prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status and disability. Political affiliation isn’t a protected class in the Act; however, Intermountain Fair Housing Council Executive Director Zoe Ann Olsen said Fitzgerald’s campaign is teetering on a very slippery slope.
“Whatever term that people have a stigma around, or have … bias toward, with further action and sometimes further statements, you know exactly what they mean,” she told the Statesman.
Olsen pointed to some of Fitzgerald’s other actions, including hosting an Eagle Hetero Awesome Fest in response to nearby Canyon County’s first-ever Pride festival. Inman covered the 4,000-person Pride festival, which was organized by Keller Williams team leader and LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance member Tom Wheeler.
“This celebration of traditional gender norms and heterosexual awesomeness is set to be the talk of the town, or at least, the talk of those who still believe in the charm of a good old-fashioned, non-rainbow-colored party,” Eagle Hetero Awesome Fest’s website read. “On During the Trans Joy Marching in Boise on Friday night, Old State Saloon will offer a Constitutional Conservative Conga Line, led by Dancin’ Donna.”
Fitzgerald, who hosted the festival at his bar, offered drink specials for cisgender heterosexual men and women. He also advertised a free pint of beer for “super straight” attendees called “beers for breeders.” “Let’s raise a glass to keeping it real and celebrating the natural order!” the festival site read.
Fitzgerald said his festival, campaign and social media posts aren’t meant to be discriminatory, and that he simply wants to have a community with people who live by biblical morals and ethics. “Those people can … be made up of all races and religions and sexes and genders,” he told the Statesman.
Boise Regional Realtors President Elizabeth Hume said the Association “doesn’t have a stance” about politics’ influence on real estate; however, they believe diversity and upholding Fair Housing rights are good for homebuyers and homesellers.
“If it was something else with fair housing, we definitely do have an opinion about that — you know, race, religion, family status, all of those other things,” she told the publication. “As far as having a diverse neighborhood with regards to fair housing, we are absolutely wanting that diverse neighborhood. We want to see a lot of thoughts and a lot of flavors.”
“But with political party, it’s not regulated, and it’s not considered a fair housing issue,” she added. “So we don’t really have an opinion about that.”
Idaho’s Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses seconded Hume’s view, with spokesperson Bob McGlaughlin telling the Statesman that Fitzgerald hasn’t violated any federal or state Fair Housing rules.
Although Fitzgerald’s post has passed Boise Regional and Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses’ Fair Housing litmus test, Olsen said it still represents a growing — and dangerous — chasm between Americans.
A recent Redfin study said election anxiety is keeping nearly a fourth of homebuyers on the sidelines this fall. Another study from Realtor.com revealed local and national politics impact 23 percent of Americans’ buying choices, a share that goes up to 33 percent for millennials.
The chasm could be extending to agents’ relationships with their clients, as evidenced by a recent Inman Intel report about the impact of the election on real estate transactions. Although most agents — 2 in 3 — said the 2024 election isn’t any more contentious than the 2020 election, the agents who said they’ve “observed the tension is higher this year outnumber nearly 4-to-1 those who say it’s less tense than they remember four years ago.”
“It’s like we’re resegregating ourselves, and that’s what concerns me,” Olsen said.
