The New Hampshire father targeted by child protection services for giving his teenage son Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 is hoping to become a lawmaker again.
J.R. Hoell is one of three Republicans running for two open seats in the state’s newly created District 27 in Merrimack County. Hoell served for 8 years in the New Hampshire House of Representatives under his old district until deciding not to run again in 2018.
The reason for his wanted return to the legislature is simple, he told The Epoch Times, “to keep government accountable to the people.”
Long labeled a conservative firebrand, the 52-year-old is competing with fellow hard-right Republicans Carol McGuire and Ernie Bencivenga for a Republican nomination to one of the two open seats. Ironically, all three of them are mechanical engineers.
Maguire is currently a state rep and has served in the House since 2008.
If Hoell wins a seat on Sept. 13, the staunchly conservative father of four will face Democrats Dennis Davis and Mary Frambach in the general election.
Frambach, also a former state representative, is ironically a former member of the New Hampshire Children and Family Law committee, which oversees The New Hampshire Division of Children Youth and Family (NHDCYF), the very agency that targeted Hoell.
The agency drew bipartisan criticism when Hoell went public with his account of how a state social worker showed up at his house with the police and an ambulance to transport his teenage son to the hospital several weeks after the 13-year-old—along with his 17-year-old sister and parents—had finished a round of human-grade Ivermectin to treat a bout of COVID-19 the family came down with.
The social worker was armed with an emergency court order to take custody of Hoell’s son, a homeschooler who had already returned to his full routine of activities including martial arts.
Medical records provided by Hoell show that hours after he left the clinic, a nurse who saw Hoell’s son reported to the DCYF that the child was in medical danger from the Ivermectin.
By coincidence, a patient at the hospital with no connection to Hoell happened to overhear a conversation about taking a father’s children away from him.
The woman recorded and then live streamed the conversation.
On the post, hospital staff could be heard talking about Hoell’s conservative views and his social media posts and one point called him a “nut job.”
Hoell, the founder of the right-wing organization ReBuildNH is also a founder of Packing NH, the only pro-firearm PAC in New Hampshire.
He is also currently a board member of the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition and was hugely against mask and vaccine mandates during COVID.
Hoell said a family doctor was also later questioned about him and his wife Charlene’s homeschooling of their children.
One of the last sponsored pieces of legislation by Hoell as a state representative was a bill calling for removal of “education neglect” as a listed cause for the DCYF to initiate a child neglect petition.
Hoell said it was aimed at homeschoolers.
Hoell said the agency acts like a “terrorist organization” and reforming it is one of his primary objectives should he be elected.
He fought the custody order and eventually won, but not until it cost him thousands of dollars in legal fees. He was also placed under a gag order.
Hoell is a major proponent of the use of human-grade Ivermectin for treating COVID and testing in support of a bill to make the drug available in NH without a prescription.
After many hearings on the proposal, both the House and Senate passed the bill only for Republican Gov. Chris Sununu to veto it.
Since Sununu’s veto and Hoell’s run-in with the DCYF, the National Institute of Health has listed Ivermectin in its COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines as a drug that is being evaluated as a treatment for the virus.
