A Republican in a critical Senate race has been exposed as hiring a top aide who once made a photo of SS soldiers his Facebook profile picture.
Stephen Woytek, 25, was hired as Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s political director in August, but a bombshell report by The Washington Post suggests that the campaign overlooked glaring details in Woytek’s background.
Woytek’s public Facebook profile shows that he follows a military reenactment group whose members dress as the Waffen-SS, the Post revealed Friday. Another photo from the group shared on Flickr appeared to show Woytek as a teenager in an SS uniform as part of a reenactment, the paper reported.
The Post also found that Woytek “recently” added songs celebrating Rhodesia—a defunct White-minority-ruled nation often venerated by white supremacists—to a public playlist.
Husted’s campaign says that Woytek has since been fired.
A spokeswoman told the Post, “Steve serves our country honorably as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and is a proud graduate of The Citadel. He studies military history and routinely reenacts historical battles. While he denies negative intent, his social media activity displays a complete lack of judgment and disregard for its impact on others.”
She added, “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.”
In a statement of his own, Woytek told the Post that he rejects Nazi ideology.
“I want to be unequivocal: I reject the racist and antisemitic ideology the SS and Nazi Germany represented,” he told the Post. “I believe it is important to educate our younger generations, which is why I participate in historical reenactments.”
He has taken part in other historical reenactments, dressing as a Union soldier in the Civil War in 2018 and 2019, and more recently, as a member of the US 83rd Infantry Division in a World War II reenactment in 2025 and 2026, the report notes.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
