No one would accuse Republican candidate for governor Victor Marx of hiding his religion under a bushel. Religion is central to his career and to his campaign. Yet, when 9News’s Kyle Clark straightforwardly reported what Marx has said and done in the name of his religion, particularly regarding demons, Marx claimed via Facebook that Clark has an “obsession with my faith” and “continues to … mock my faith.”
Marx’s claims about demons
Marx wears his religion openly, and central to his religion is his self-purported war against demons. On September 14, 2025, at the memorial service for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Marx teased a possible run for governor. He spoke openly about the “devil” being the “enemy of our soul,” then immediately pivoted to talking about a possible run for governor: “I’m going to let all y’all know if in fact God is calling me to run and win for governor.” (Although some might characterize the soft-launch of a political campaign at a memorial service as uncouth, the crowd, judging from the applause and standing ovation, loved it.)
For his closing statement during a June 2 Republican primary debate hosted by 9News, Marx chose to offer a Christian prayer.
Although in his Facebook post Marx accused Clark of “repeated misuse of the word ‘exorcism,'” it is Marx who called himself a “reluctant exorcist,” as I wrote last Fall. As Marx has subsequently clarified (see my July 8 article), he doesn’t regard what he does technically as “exorcism,” despite his use of the term.
It is worth reviewing Marx’s own words during his May 27 interview with Clark. Although Marx said he called himself a “reluctant exorcist” as a “joke,” he made it clear that he very much believes he is engaged in spiritual warfare with literal demons:
As a follower of Christ, and someone who’s very familiar with evil, that’s been both forced upon me as a kid, and then seeing the effects of it in humans’ lives, I believe the word of God, that I can pray for people and see people set free from, whether it’s demonic oppression … I never call it possession. I believe there’s levels of demonization where people are suffering because of evil. … I don’t command demons to come out of someone. I think of them as assignments or attachments to people. And we identify the demon, like Jesus did, we ask what their name is, and then we give them commands, and they very frequently and typically will answer through the person’s mind. They’ll tell us what they hear. And then we destroy them, banish them to perfect judgment from Christ.
Clark followed up by asking if Marx has performed exorcisms by phone and if they are just as effective. Marx claimed (despite the terminology) that he has and that they are. Marx also told Clark that, if elected governor, he would “never stop praying” for people suffering from demonic attachments. Clark also pointed out that at one point Marx sold a “spiritual warfare” guide through his website about fighting demons for a suggested payment of $99.
Clark’s report on Marx’s demon hunting
Fast-forward to Clark’s July 28 report on Marx. Clark began by perfectly summarizing Marx’s own statements: “Victor Marx says he’s not an exorcist. He just prays away the demons that attach to people.” Clark said that, in scores of hours of video featuring Marx, “‘exorcisms’ are front and center.” True, Clark slipped into the language about “exorcisms” when he probably should have substituted “demon-casting” or the like. Clark brings the receipts, showing clip after clip of Marx purporting to pray against demons.
Marx, Clark reported (and played a clip of Marx saying it), even chalks up homosexuality to demonic influence. This is consistent with what Marx has said elsewhere, that “of course homosexuality is a perversion of what God has intended.” (However, Marx added that he thinks some Christians are biased against homosexuals because “sex outside of marriage” is as perverted as homosexuality.)
Clark also reported various criticisms by political opponents and skeptical religious leaders. Marx probably is reacting in part to those reported criticisms.
Clark also reported this astonishing fact:
The origin of Victor Marx’s demon deliverance ministry appears to have been about 20 years ago when he says he was doing a Bible study at a youth correctional facility in Texas when he directed the prison guards to place him alone in a cell with a 15 year old girl who he said was in the grips of the devil. I should mention it’s not the last time that Marx says he performed this ritual on a child. Marx’s campaign did not respond to our specific questions about that encounter with the 15 year old girl.
So why did Marx complain about Clark’s reporting, most of which consisted simply of playing clips of Marx talking about demons? The answer seems obvious: Marx wants to deflect attention away from his own past comments about demons and cast himself, however groundlessly, as the victim of media bias.
One odd thing about Marx claiming that Clark mocks his faith is that Clark too is a Christian. Clark confirmed this in a July 30 email to me. But of course Marx’s version of Christianity hardly is universal.
American belief in demons is fairly common; talk about a war against demons in the context of a political campaign is not. In 2023, Pew reported that 65% of Americans “believe in spirits or unseen spiritual forces” (which may be good or bad). Back in 2007, Pew reported that 11% of Americans said “they have experienced or witnessed an exorcism.” Of course, many people who believe in demons might nevertheless express skepticism about Marx’s particular claims about them. Official Catholic doctrine holds that exorcism can be needed to protect a person “against the power of the devil or to be withdrawn from his spiritual dominion.” As odd as it is to hear Marx’s views on demons in a political context, his views are shared, if typically in less-exaggerated form, by many Americans.
How should journalists cover religious views?
Clark’s coverage of Marx raises larger questions about how news journalists should cover candidates’ religious views, especially unconventional views.
I agree with Clark that Marx’s statements, actions, and products related to demons are important and deserving of media attention. Clark justifiably denied anything amiss in his reporting. He wrote to me:
Our reporting on Marx’s ministry is detailed, straightforward, and focused on his own words and actions. Marx has described his demon hunting as his greatest accomplishment, so I assume every journalist covering the race will examine his claims. Because Marx’s work as a ministry leader makes up the bulk of his experience and qualifications, it will naturally be a subject of reporting.
I asked Clark about whether journalists should publicly discuss their own religious views (as Clark shared with me his Christianity). He answered:
Journalists should feel free to discuss their personal lives to the extent that they and their employer are comfortable with that. Some journalists are uncomfortable sharing much about their personal lives for security reasons or because it can introduce accusations of bias, but journalists are people like anyone else. I’m a journalist but I’m also an American citizen, a husband, a father, a person who grew up in a rural area who now lives in a city, and so much more. All of it influences the way I see the world. Journalists are not immune to bias, we just work to identify it and counteract it in our work.
Finally, I asked Clark to clarify the tidbit about Marx or his team offering to pray about Clark’s potential demonic attachments. Based on Cory Hutchins’s June 5 report, I had the impression that Marx himself had asked to pray about this. No. During his news report, Clark mentioned, “When I visited Marx’s training compound earlier this year, his team offered to perform the demon hunting prayer on me.” Clark told me:
Marx did not offer to perform an exorcism [or prayer against demons] on me, it was his team [names omitted]. They politely offered to perform their “retooling prayer” on me when I visited their training compound. I didn’t get the sense they thought I was particularly demon-infested. It struck me as a courtesy they likely offer a lot of people. While Marx has since falsely claimed that I “declined prayer,” I told Marx’s team that I am grateful if they or anyone else keeps me and my family in their prayers. But, as for their offer of their specialized prayer to cast off demons, I told them I would need to give that more thought.
I hasten to point out that, although Marx’s perspective on demons certainly is media worthy, now that Marx is facing a general election, he has deemphasized talk about demons. For example, in a recent Facebook ad, Marx does not so much as mention demons or even God. Instead he talks about affordability. His website features common themes including government transparency, cost of living, economic growth, and public safety. Marx knows he cannot win the general election by appealing only to evangelical voters, and he has shifted his rhetoric accordingly. Journalists rightly cover what Marx says is important about his campaign as well as what he no longer wishes to emphasize but that obviously is relevant to his qualifications and fitness for office.
9News’s Next also has covered Marx’s selection of a running mate and his apparently law-defying request for contributions via his merchandise store. So it’s hardly as though 9News is only covering the demon angle, as newsworthy as that is.
Reality matters
It is a news journalist’s job to report the news of the day, not (usually) to wade into philosophic debates. But I’m an opinion writer, so I can wade and indeed swim into such matters.
In my view, the majority of Americans who believe in demons and the like simply are wrong. Victor Marx is not a “reluctant exorcist” or a demon hunter or anything like that for the simple reason that demons do not exist. Demons are figments of the imagination. We therefore should give Marx’s comments about demons exactly as much credence as if he claimed to influence the lightning bolts of Zeus, a magical genie from a lamp, or Santa’s flying sleigh.
I do, however, agree with Marx that evil exists in the world; I just think it is a matter of human choices, psychology, and ideology, not supernatural forces. For example, it is evil to say that homosexuality is caused by demons.
My basic argument against the existence of demons, and indeed of any supernatural consciousness, is that natural phenomena, specifically our brains, give rise to consciousness. Consciousness cannot exist without a natural substrate. The notion that there can be a consciousness without anything natural giving rise to it is a variant of the error of thinking that something can come from nothing. But this is an op-ed, not a philosophic tract, so I will stop there.
Something Marx says, as quoted by 9News, illustrates that really what he’s talking about are psychological phenomena, not demons:
This is how I explain it to women. I go, ladies, you get out of the shower, you’re getting ready. You’re looking in the mirror, you know, it’s just you. Do you ever hear these thoughts? You’re ugly, you’re disgusting, you will never … That’s how you start to go, my gosh, maybe that is demonic, and it is. But there’s a way to battle, have victory, and I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it from addictions to homosexual lifestyle to cheating to murder, the whole nine yards, people get set free from it all.
We hardly need demonology to explain such things as people having negative thoughts about themselves. That we can have negative thoughts, and that our minds can seem to have conflicting allegiances, are basic psychological insights. As for Marx claiming that homosexuality arises from demonic influence, he is literally demonizing people for the way they were born. For him to categorize homosexuality with cheating and murder is dangerous and wrong.
We don’t need to worry about demons, because they don’t exist. We do need to worry about people such as Marx who believe they are hunting or praying away the demons, especially when they attribute benign behavior to demonic influence.
Marx is delusional when he claims to be warring against demons. I don’t expect news journalists to point that fact out, but I do expect them, as Clark did, to factually cover a candidate’s relevant religious views and their political implications.
As for those of us who aspire to be grounded in reality and guided by reason, we should feel free to call Marx’s delusions what they plainly are.
