COLUMBUS, Ohio · September 12, 2026
Sen. Jon Husted’s campaign has parted ways with its political director after public questions arose Friday about the staffer’s social media history, including a Facebook profile photo of soldiers from a Nazi SS unit.
Stephen Woytek, 25, joined the Husted campaign in August as political director in the Republican senator’s race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. The two are competing in Ohio’s Nov. 3 special election for the U.S. Senate.
The campaign said Husted made the decision the same day the activity became public. Woytek had been on the Senate campaign for roughly a month.
Who he is
Woytek is a first lieutenant in the Ohio Army National Guard and a graduate of The Citadel, the military college in South Carolina, where he studied political science and American government.
Before joining Husted’s Senate campaign, he worked as a legislative aide to state Rep. Haraz Ghanbari, R-Perrysburg, from May 2024 through August 2026. A House spokesperson said he was hired during the previous General Assembly and has been on unpaid leave since the summer. His professional profile also lists work on a campaign for state Rep. Bill Roemer, R-Richfield.
What led to the firing
In 2018, when Woytek was 16, he changed his Facebook profile photo to a black-and-white image of German soldiers from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler unit holding a captured Soviet flag from World War II. That unit began as Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard force before becoming an armored division in the Waffen-SS.
His Facebook profile also showed that he follows the LAH Living History Unit, a U.S. reenactment group that portrays the 1st SS Panzer Division. The group describes itself as nonpolitical and says it condemns Nazi Germany’s persecution and ideology. Public photos associated with the group appear to show Woytek as a teenager in an SS-style uniform at a 2018 reenactment. Reporting on his background also notes that he has taken part in other living-history events, including portrayals of a Union soldier in Civil War reenactments and an American soldier in World War II reenactments.
A Spotify account bearing his name and photo carried a public playlist titled “Tales From Rhodesia,” with a caption that read “homesick for a place that no longer exists.” Rhodesia was a white-minority-ruled state in southern Africa that later became Zimbabwe and is often cited as a symbol by white supremacists. Songs were added to the playlist as recently as August. The playlist was no longer visible Friday afternoon.
Campaign and staffer statements
Husted campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce said the senator acted as soon as he learned of the posts.
“While he denies negative intent, his social media activity displays a complete lack of judgement and disregard for its impact on others. Sen. Husted demands better of those who represent him. Upon learning about the social media posts today, Sen. Husted made the immediate decision to part ways.”
Natoce also noted that Woytek serves in the Army National Guard, graduated from The Citadel, studies military history, and routinely reenacts historical battles. The campaign did not answer questions about whether it screened his social media before hiring him.
Woytek said he rejects the ideology associated with the imagery.
“I want to be unequivocal: I reject the racist and antisemitic ideology the SS and Nazi Germany represented. I believe it is important to educate our younger generations, which is why I participate in historical reenactments.”
He added that he should have exercised better judgment when posting about those activities online and said he was “utterly heartbroken” but was respectfully parting ways with the campaign. He did not publicly address questions about the Rhodesia playlist.
Was firing the right call?
Reaction split along a familiar line in political campaigns: intent versus impact.
On one side, Woytek and some observers framed the material as a teenage military-history hobby that got posted in the wrong place. The Facebook photo dates to 2018, when he was 16. The reenactment group he follows says it is nonpolitical. He has also portrayed American and Union soldiers, and he issued a direct rejection of Nazi and antisemitic ideology. In that telling, a young staffer paid a steep price for poor online judgment, not for holding those beliefs.
On the other side, critics argued a Senate campaign has no room for error when the public face of the operation includes an SS profile photo, photos in SS-style reenactment dress, and a public playlist tied to a regime often celebrated by white supremacists. They pointed to the recent August additions on Spotify, not only the 2018 photo, and said a political director is hired to protect a candidate, not create a distraction weeks before early voting. Husted’s own statement landed closer to that view. The campaign accepted that Woytek denied bad intent and still cut ties immediately.
As of Saturday, neither Husted nor Brown had issued a lengthy personal comment beyond the Husted campaign’s written statement. The Brown campaign had not released a public response to the staff change.
The firing removes Woytek from a high-profile role in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races. It does not change the remaining questions about how the material, some of it public for years, was handled before he was hired.
