Cleveland Black, Jewish leaders question Husted campaign vetting after staffer's Nazi post

CLEVELAND, OHIO – Black and Jewish community leaders on Thursday questioned how a campaign aide with a history of posting Nazi-related imagery on social media was hired as a senior staffer for U.S. Sen. Jon Husted’s campaign, arguing that it reflects a failure of judgment and vetting.

The criticism came during a news conference at the Cleveland Cultural Gardens after Husted’s campaign fired political director Stephen Woytek following a Washington Post report detailing that the staffer had used a photo of Nazi SS soldiers as his Facebook profile picture.

The community leaders Thursday repeatedly said the issue extends beyond Woytek’s conduct and instead raises concerns about how he was hired in the first place.

“See, we live in a high-stakes society where all jobs are vetted to social media, and we know political campaigns vet social media too. And we expect our political leaders to know better, and quite frankly, to just be better,” said Pastor Napoleon J. Harris of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland.

“It’s a moral shame that it took external pressure from the press to make a campaign part ways with a polarizing, problematic person, and it’s an even greater moral shame that Nazi enthusiasm was not loudly condemned.”

Harris called Nazism, white supremacy and antisemitism “evil” and argued public officials should clearly denounce them.

“Nazism hatred, injustice, and white supremacy are not normal. They are not just errors in judgment, Harris said. ”Having an extra beer, wearing a Steelers jersey to a Browns game -- those are errors in judgment. This is evil. It’s wrong.”

The Washington Post reported that Woytek changed his Facebook profile picture in 2018 to an image of soldiers from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler division, a unit that began as Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard and later became an armored division.

The newspaper also found a public Spotify playlist under Woytek’s name titled “Tales From Rhodesia,” which included songs celebrating the former African country, now Zimbabwe.

Rhodesia, ruled by a white minority that resisted Black majority rule, has become a symbol for some white supremacists. Husted’s campaign told The Post it learned of Woytek’s social media activity Sept. 11, the same day The Post published its story. A spokeswoman told cleveland.com that day that Husted immediately cut ties with Woytek.

State Rep. Eric Synenberg, a Beachwood Democrat and one of the General Assembly’s Jewish members, said the episode raised broader concerns about Husted’s judgment and campaign vetting procedures.

“I stand here today really frustrated that in 2026 we are still having to call out a failure like this from a sitting United States senator,” Synenberg said.

Synenberg said Woytek’s social media activity was publicly available and questioned how someone with that history was selected for one of the campaign’s most senior positions.

“At the core of this issue is a basic responsibility -- doing the necessary research and due diligence before hiring someone to serve as a political director, one of the most important positions on a campaign,” he said.

Woytek has said that he didn’t support any of the Nazis’ racist ideologies. He studies military history and participates in historical reenactments. The Post reported that Woytek participated in a reenactment group portraying the Leibstandarte division, a Union soldier during the Civil War, and as a U.S. soldier during World War II.

Synenberg dismissed this defense.

“When the history is painful, you don’t reenact it. You don’t publicize it,” he said.