This article was published in partnership with Bellingcat, a nonprofit investigative outlet that specializes in open source research.
The Texas Observer and Bellingcat have identified the leader of a white nationalist group that distributed antisemitic and racist flyers in Weatherford, Mineral Wells, and Eagle Pass over the last year. In an online conversation with the Observer, Rhett Murry Loftis, a 23-year-old resident of Weatherford, admits he leads the Parker County Active Club.
“I’m a fascist, there’s no denying that,” Loftis said in a series of direct messages.
Loftis, a former musician, said he first got active in the white nationalist movement in 2021 after spending several years lurking on online forums. In April 2023, Loftis formed the Parker County Active Club, which he described as a “white nationalist fight club.” Loftis also admitted that he organizes white nationalist activism under the name of the Texas Nationalist Network.
“Active Clubs are increasingly organized and resourced and could pose even greater threats to public safety and community wellbeing in the immediate future.”
The Parker County Active Club is part of a decentralized network of “Active Clubs” that has spread across the United States and the globe since 2020. Described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as among the nation’s most active white nationalist groups, Active Clubs use a combination of online propaganda, martial arts training, in-person gatherings, and small-scale demonstrations to drive recruitment and create new clubs.
Jared Holt, a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank focused on extremism and human rights, said these white supremacist clubs “are increasingly organized and resourced and could pose even greater threats to public safety and community wellbeing in the immediate future.”
Like other Active Clubs, the one in Parker County promotes white nationalist and neo-Nazi ideology, such as the “great replacement theory” and the white genocide theory, which proclaim the Jewish population and nonwhite immigrants pose an existential threat to the white race. Posts from the group’s Telegram chatroom quote Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Videos show members making stiff-arm salutes.
Loftis told the Observer that he does not identify as neo-Nazi. But he acknowledged he collaborates with them.
“Although I believe some form of Fascism is the answer, National Socialism is not that,” Loftis said. “I do admire Hitler and I believe the Roman salute is a powerful symbol of White power. … One of my main passions is to help facilitate cooperation and collaboration between various pro-White groups.”
The two Active Clubs in Texas, the Parker County Active Club and the Alamo Active Club, gathered for demonstrations in Austin in 2023 and San Antonio in 2024, according to posts in their Telegram channels. Although the number of Texas members is unclear, photos and videos indicate that at least a dozen young men are involved.
While Texas Active Clubs have maintained a relatively low profile, Tennessee Active Club members made national headlines last year when they acted as security for a controversial right-wing mayoral candidate who was arrested on charges of promoting prostitution in the mid-1990s in Dallas. Researchers have expressed growing concern about the growth of this extremist network.
Photos and videos in the Parker County Active Club chatroom document overlap with other white nationalist groups, including Patriot Front, the White Lives Matter movement, and the Goyim Defense League. One video shows Loftis distributing antisemitic flyers with members of the Goyim Defense League whom we identified in prior reporting.
“Active Clubs can best be understood as modern-day skinheads.”
“Active Clubs can best be understood as modern-day skinheads, as they often engage in the same networks, activities, and ideologies,” Holt said. “They are wearing a very thin veil, but I worry it might just be enough that it’s left some people confused as to what is going on here. This is the same old hate with a new wig and makeup.”
One of the earliest posts in the Parker County Active Club chatroom emphasized the importance of maintaining good operational security and not revealing identifying information.
Loftis was confirmed to be the leader of the Parker County Active Club by the Observer and Bellingcat because of social media posts, images, and music he shared online.
The handle of Loftis’ pseudonymous account on X linked him to past musical groups. One of those groups had posted a photo that included Loftis with a chest tattoo. That tattoo matched blurred face photos in Loftis’ X account’s profile and in the Parker County Active Club chatroom. Tying it all together was a Redbubble web store for merchandise affiliated with Loftis’ musical groups that also sold Parker County Active Club and Texas Nationalist Network shirts. The store was deleted shortly after the Observer contacted Redbubble for comment.
“The user and listings in question violate our content guidelines and have been removed from the marketplace,” Redbubble said in a statement to the Observer.
According to a 2022 podcast interview, Loftis said he worked at Texas Steel Tech, a steel fabrication and construction company in Weatherford. Requests for comment to the company by email and phone about whether the white nationalist fight club leader is still employed there went unanswered.
To learn more about the open-source investigative process behind this report, read the article published by our reporting partner Bellingcat.
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