An executive with the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group the American Family Association (AFA) recently endorsed the racist and antisemitic “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which falsely claims there is an active and covert effort to replace white populations in current white-majority countries.
The comment came from Walker Wildmon on the July 28 episode of his podcast and radio show At the Core. Wildmon is the vice president of the AFA and the CEO of its political organization, AFA Action. At the Core is a program of the AFA’s American Family Radio (AFR).
White nationalist proponents of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory falsely claim Jewish people are responsible for bringing non-white immigrants into the country. Commenting on an article published by his organization’s website about declining fertility rates in the United States, Wildmon said, “The great replacement theory is not a theory. This is happening. This has happened.”
As Hatewatch previously reported, the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory has been linked to perpetrators of mass shootings, including at a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018; at a mosque and a community center in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019; at a 2019 attack on a Walmart in El Paso, Texas; and at a 2022 mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. In each case, the perpetrators cited the “great replacement theory” and the perceived threat to white society from Jews, Muslims, Latinx people and Black people, respectively.
Wildmon’s endorsement of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory illustrates how anti-LGBTQ+ groups rely on white nationalist ideas to perpetuate anti-immigrant and pro-natalist positions. Wildmon’s endorsement, which he gave in a monologue about declining fertility rates in the United States, highlights the link between anti-LGBTQ+ ideology and eugenics, which suggests both LGBTQ+ people and policies that promote reproductive autonomy result in a society that is incapable of reproducing white Christian culture.
White nationalist ideology featured on At the Core
The AFA is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi, and has built a radio network, called American Family Radio, of more than 180 stations broadcasting in more than 30 states. Wildmon debuted his daily program At the Core in 2021. He co-hosts the show with former Texas state Rep. Rick Green, who also co-hosts a daily national radio program with anti-LGBTQ+ extremist David Barton. “The idea behind the show is to focus on the mission, vision, and core values of AFA,” the group wrote about At the Core in an article celebrating the AFA’s 30th anniversary. “The core of AFR’s mission has always been faithfully obeying God’s call to strengthen America’s family with truth – and the Wildmon family is carrying out that call,” the article states.
In addition to its radio network, the AFA has a long history of corporate activism mostly focused on boycotts in opposition to LGBTQ+ inclusion. However, Wildmon has recently turned to corporate shareholder activism. In 2024 and 2025, he partnered with advisers to anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom’s Viewpoint Diversity Score program to push corporate boards to end policies they claim discriminate against conservative Christians. Hatewatch has previously reported on the Alliance Defending Freedom’s use of white nationalist tropes to promote its policies.
Wildmon’s endorsement of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory represents a major escalation in the use of white nationalist tropes by the AFA. It also illustrates the strength of the link between white nationalism, anti-LGBTQ+ ideology and pro-natalism among anti-LGBTQ+ groups.
Wildmon made his comments on the “great replacement” after discussing an article published on the AFA’s American Family News website by author Chris Woodward. In it, Woodward claimed federal policies that promote heterosexual marriage will reverse a declining fertility rate in the United States. Wildmon promoted these pro-natalist public policies in what he characterized as an effort to stave off the demise of Western Christian society.
According to Wildmon, the falling fertility rate represents an existential crisis facing “native-born Americans,” who are at risk of being replaced by “illegal immigrants” he sees as “surging” into the country. Wildmon suggested that being born in the United States is a prerequisite for understanding American culture. “Foreign born people,” he said, have “very little concept of American culture and American ideals,” which “plays into the downfall of America as we know it.”
Wildmon also claimed that a “blood connection to the country” is necessary to fully understand American values. According to Wildmon, Democrats promote the “replacement” of Americans with immigrants because they do not want a “voting bloc” of “native-born Americans that have not only a blood connection to the country, but also have some kind of understanding of our Revolutionary War, how we got to where we are today, the Bill of Rights, America’s Founding Fathers, individual liberty, capitalism, God-given rights, all of these ideals and truths that get passed on from generation to generation.”
He continued: “What we’re talking about is an America that becomes unrecognizable to the America of maybe 40 years ago or 80 years ago. And if you want to know what this looks like maybe 10 years down the road, go to Europe, go to Europe or go to Minnesota, go to Minnesota. Go to places where large amounts of foreigners, foreign-born individuals have been surged in and replaced American culture.”
In addition, Wildmon claimed that the “great replacement” reflects a spiritual and political threat to white Christians. It is “indicative of our spiritual state in America,” he said. “The net effect is that when you bring in people who have no lineal or, lineage and blood connection to the society, to the country, to the culture, it makes it much, much harder to preserve it.”
AFA Action posted a series of images on social media two days after Wildmon’s podcast appearance that echoed his comments, claiming the declining fertility rate “reflects a movement away from God” that jeopardizes American “cultural continuity.” “The demographic shift threatens the transmission of America’s founding principles to future generations,” AFA Action wrote. The posts feature graphics reminiscent of natalist frames and images used in flyers created by white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
Rhetorical alignment on ‘natural family’ eugenics
The AFA’s shift toward anti-immigrant and antisemitic conspiracy theories highlights how eugenics helps bind these extremist ideologies with the anti-LGBTQ+ movement. Hatewatch has previously reported on the use of “natural family” rhetoric by anti-LGBTQ+ groups, which is rooted in fears of a demographic “crisis” and the crumbling of white, Western Christian culture and society.
Stoking anxiety about declining fertility props up the false belief that white Christian society is under attack by uncivilized, non-Christian people of color. Another AFA Action social media post on July 28 is consistent with this belief, stating, “No exaggeration: American civilization as we know it is in collapse.”
The AFA claims that to confront these perceived threats, federal policy should only support the creation of a normatively appropriate family. For example, the AFA’s The Stand blog published an article on Feb. 25 condemning President Donald Trump’s executive order to broaden in vitro fertilization because, it claimed, “it enables single parents by choice, same-sex couples, and other non-traditional arrangements to create children outside of the biblical model of family.”
Focusing on the family as the unit for reproducing white Christian culture, the AFA warned, “Christians must be discerning and recognize that while the birth of children is a great good, the structure in which they are raised matters immensely.” The article concluded, “The pro-life position is not just about increasing birth rates but about honoring God’s design for life and family.”
The AFA’s endorsement of anti-immigrant conspiracy theories was seemingly presaged by the September 2024 addition of a podcast from the hate group Them Before Us to the group’s schedule. The podcast is hosted by Katy Faust who, at the Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Summit in October 2024, said, “We need to shut the border for the sake of children. You need to know more about this than everyone else. And then finally, if all else fails, we need to breed them out. Have more babies and raise them up.” AFA Action is also frequently listed among the “major sponsors” of Pray Vote Stand, including the 2025 summit in October.
Image at top: Walker Wildmon of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group American Family Association speaks during an episode of his At the Core podcast released on March 10, 2025. (Photo illustration by the SPLC. Source images from YouTube and iStock.)