WHITEFISH, Mont. — Richard Spencer, the most infamous summer resident in the town of Whitefish, Montana, once boasted that he stood at the vanguard of a white nationalist movement emboldened by President Donald Trump. Things have changed.
“I have bumped into him, and he runs. That’s actually a really good feeling,” said Tanya Gersh, a real estate agent targeted in an antisemitic hate campaign that Andrew Anglin, founder of neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, unleashed in 2016 after Spencer’s mother made online accusations against Gersh.
Leaders in Whitefish say Spencer, who once ran his National Policy Institute from his mother’s $3 million summer house in Whitefish, is now an outcast in this resort town in the Rocky Mountains, unable to get a table at many of its restaurants. His organization has dissolved. Meanwhile, his wife has divorced him, and he is facing a trial next month in Charlottesville, Virginia, over his role in the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march there but said he cannot afford a lawyer.
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The turn of events is no accident. Whitefish, a mostly liberal, affluent community nestled in a county that voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, rose up and struck back. Residents who joined with state officials, human rights groups and synagogues said their bipartisan counteroffensive could hold lessons for others in an era of disinformation and intimidation, and in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“The best way to respond to hate and cyberterrorism in your community is through solidarity,” said Rabbi Francine Green Roston of the Glacier Jewish Community/B’nai Shalom, who now lectures other groups on how to ward off hate campaigns like the one Whitefish endured. “Another big principle is to take threats seriously and prepare for the worst.”
Mayor John Muhlfeld agreed. “You have to act swiftly and decisively and come together as a community to tackle hate and make sure it doesn’t infiltrate your town,” he said.
On Saturday, Spencer said he kept a “very low profile” in Whitefish, and though he had been denied service in local establishments in the past, “I don’t have any anxiety dealing with anyone.” He said he does not run from Gersh and understood why people would be angry with him.
“I don’t want any battles with them here in Whitefish,” he said, “and I hope they take a similar attitude, that it’s best to move on.” His mother, Sherry Spencer, did not respond to requests for comment.
The trouble in Whitefish started after Trump’s victory in the 2016 election that November. Spencer, who had called his white nationalist movement a “vanguard” for Trump, delivered a racially charged speech at his institute’s conference in Washington, his words greeted by Nazi salutes. Video of the address went viral. In Whitefish, residents discussed protesting in front of a downtown commercial building owned by Spencer’s mother.
Gersh said Sherry Spencer called her.
“She flat-out asked me, ‘Tanya, I don’t believe in my son’s ideology. I’m heartbroken that this is hurting Whitefish. What should I do?’” Gersh recalled over coffee in her office downtown.
“I said, ‘Sherry, if this were my son, I would go ahead and sell the building. I would donate some money to something like the Human Rights Network to make a statement and publish that you don’t believe in the ideologies of your son.’ And she said, ‘Thank you, Tanya. That’s exactly what I should do.’”
Gersh said she arranged to sell the property without making any profit. But a short time later, she said, Sherry Spencer sent an email saying she had changed her mind about working with Gersh, who then supplied names of other real estate agents.
