by Hudson Crozier
The activist and self-declared 2028 presidential candidate is offering free homes to his allies so they can move to a GOP-leaning Texas county and change his electoral makeup to support, as he puts it, “melanated people” like him.
Malcolm Tanner has declared his plans to radically overhaul Loving County government by the 2026 midterm elections. social media posts first reported by Houston Chronicle. Tanner promises to eradicate “corruption” in an oil-rich, predominantly white county his groupMelanated People of Power.
In addition to 258 thousand Facebook followersTanner boasts 3,100 supporters of the “2028 Presidential Run” group chat in the Clubhouse app. At least a dozen people with ties to Tanner have registered to vote in the county, Sheriff David Landersman, who also serves as the county’s registrar of voters, told The Houston Chronicle. The owner of the café reportedly stated that she counted at least 30 fresh arrivals in August – almost half of them 64 people who made up the entire Loving population in the 2020 U.S. Census.
“It’s not very often you see a brother who looks like me come into the county and take over the entire county,” Tanner said in a July TikTok post. “Well, I took over the entire county, here in Loving County, Texas. When this election starts in 2026, we will clear out the board. Everyone I elect will be elected.” Tanner also told his supporters in: July post on Facebook that his daughter would become a district judge.
An unidentified person claiming to be Tanner’s legal counsel dismissed the idea of a “so-called foreclosure plan” in Loving County in an email after he was first contacted by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Tanner later told DCNF over the phone that he began building homes in the area in January.
Factors like low crime make the county attractive to visitors who want to escape substantial city life, he said.
“People want to live an American story that is told over and over again and takes place in Loving County, Texas,” Tanner told DCNF.
“Nobody wants to pick up the phone and say there’s just been a shooting at my kid’s school,” he said. “They don’t want that… they want to have peace. Peace.”
In December postTanner described himself as an “American entrepreneur, philanthropist, educator and federal politician” from South Bend, Indiana, who earned a doctorate in theology from an unnamed university. He also called himself the founder of the Melanated People of Power University. Tanner claimed to be a single father of 11 children, “juggling his responsibilities as a father with an ambitious career.”
In a July Facebook post, Tanner told his followers to join him in the president’s Clubhouse group if they wanted free homes. “If you’re ready, say yes in the chat,” he said. He said he owns at least two five-acre properties in Loving County valuation protocols containing his mailing address in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
The activist’s efforts were not without challenges, as he twice observed one house being demolished against his will, DCNF said. He stated that he did not know who ordered its removal.
“We plan to build as many of them as we can,” Tanner said, adding that he and his partners are strategizing on what to do next. For now, some of his homes in the county are recreational vehicles, he said.
The offices of Loving County Judge Skeet Jones and Sheriff Landersman did not respond to DCNF requests for comment. The Loving County elections office also did not respond to an inquiry.
Tanner sued the sheriff’s department in federal court in August reproach that the deputy repeatedly came to one of Tanner’s properties without legal authorization, including an incident in which he allegedly brought a reporter looking to interview residents. He also claimed that many of his properties were illegally “demolished or removed,” without providing specific dates or locations.
“These actions constitute an intentional interference with my property rights and were apparently motivated by resentment of my publicly expressed political intentions to increase housing occupancy in Loving County and interfered with my lawful participation in democratic government,” Tanner wrote, seeking $800 million in damages.
On September 19 motion to dismiss in that case, the county argued that the lawsuit didn’t actually describe anything illegal, noting that it even mentions the defendants vacating Tanner’s property upon request.
Tanner told DCNF that “terrified” tenants began contacting the FBI about alleged harassment by the county. “The police are potentially bad people,” he said. “You don’t know who to talk to.”
The FBI’s El Paso field office near Loving County declined to comment to the DCNF.
As part of his broader political ambitions, Tanner promised to sign an executive order as president giving Black people $5,000 a month from conception to death “for the harm done by Democrats and Republicans,” as seen in Facebook video showing him from the past few weeks speaking to the audience at a Q&A event.
“I’m not a domestic terrorist, I’m not a Democrat or a Republican,” Tanner told the audience in response to a question about what he would do for Black people. He also announced the third party’s candidacy for president in 2023, Federal Election Commission records show.
In Loving County in 2024, 88% voted for President Donald Trump, although this was one of the few two counties in Texas, which has moved toward the Democratic presidential ticket since the 2020 election. Judges invalidated three of the county’s 2022 midterm elections false residence applicationsAND the case is pending against the results of the 2024 Republican primary for sheriff and police officer, Courthouse News Service and NewsWest9 report.
Tanner told DCNF he didn’t know how many people moved to the county as a result of his housing offers. He claims that all he wants is to give them a better life.
“These people come here not to be bothered,” Tanner said.
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Hudson Crozier is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Malcolm Tanner” by Malcolm Tanner.
