Candidate Profile: Willie J. Montague

Willie J. Montague has a lot going on right now.  

In an Aug. 4 statement posted to X, he told his 110,200 followers that while he might be known as a minister or politician, he has many other important irons in the proverbial fire. 

Montague, 37, said that he will be starting health seminars and entrepreneurial and community empowerment programs and expanding his kava ventures, “including KavaCon,” the annual May conference for kava aficionados and brewers that he founded and runs. He said Gravity Church in Winter Park, where he serves as lead pastor, will resume in-person services. And he is launching a national TV show, Americana, that will air weeknights at 6:30 p.m., on the Black-owned and operated TV network AfroTV (on Roku and XFinity), where he currently appears as a co-host for The Point of View.

And, of course, there is House of Timothy, the nonprofit, residential Christian facility he operates for at-risk boys, and the mentoring he does in the Orange County Public Schools. 

And, oh yes, Montague also mentioned he was “fully committed to giving this election my all,” too. 

In the political realm, Montague is chair of the Orange County Republican Liberty Caucus, regional director of the Central Florida Republican Liberty Caucus and a member of the Orange County Citizens Commission for Children Board. He was also the only Republican to file during the qualifying period (April 28-30) for the State Senate District 15 special election, making him the de facto Republican nominee. He faces State Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, who bested a field of four in the Democratic primary, in the Sept. 2 election. 

District 15 includes Ocoee, Winter Garden, Oakland, Pine Hills, Dr. Phillips, Apopka, Eatonville and parts of Orlando. 

State senators earn $29,697 annually and typically serve four years. Since this election is required to fill the seat of the late Sen. Geraldine F. Thompson, who died in February, the winner will serve until the end of her term in 2028.

Aug. 21 is the last day to request a mail-in ballot. Early voting takes place Aug. 23 to 31, daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at these locations. 

Small town guy

Montague hails from the small North Carolina town called Morehead City and was raised by a single, working mom.

He attended the Rhema Bible Training College in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, in 2007. He said he was “given an honorary doctorate” by North Carolina’s Rehoboth International Bible College (RIBC) in 2017. This does not appear to be an accredited educational institution — at least not by the organizations the school claims it is on its site, which do not turn up in any Google search. RIBC appears to be an online program through which degrees can be purchased on a payment plan. The site shows doctoral degrees are available (inclusive of master’s credits) for $3,000; PhDs for $3,500; and combined doctoral and PhD degrees for $5,000. 

He said in 2019, Encouraging Faith Theological Seminary in Miami “took all that together and with all the writings that I did, they gave me a PhD.” However, the only trace VoxPopuli could find of the online Encouraging Faith Theological Seminary was a LinkedIn profile for Kenneth L. Davis, who was listed as chancellor from May 2017 to November 2021 under his job experience. The URL he included for the school — www.eftuonline.org — did not work. 

Montague is currently enrolled in an online Bachelor of Science program in business administration at North Dakota State University, according to the school registrar. 

Unafraid to buck the party

Montague, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2018, 2020 and 2022, launched his state senate bid, saying that his “campaign stands on a foundation of community, action, and accountability — not photo ops or political theater. While Rep. Bracy has had years to be a voice for the people, too many in our district still feel unheard, underserved, and left behind.” He said he wanted to continue Thompson’s legacy, and he was running “to bring real, local-first leadership to Tallahassee.” 

Montague has raised nearly $5,000 in campaign donations and has about $959 left, according to campaign finance reports. Bracy Davis raised more than $72,000 and has more than $30,000 left going into the final weeks of the election. 

A Republican since age 14, Montague appears to buck his own party at times. That may help explain why on June 18, he posted on Facebook: “I honestly don’t know how much longer I can stay attached to a party that refuses to listen to anyone outside of their inner circle.” 

He has taken positions that have brought him flak. While the Florida Republican Party declared war on the LGBTQ community with the Don’t Say Gay legislation, book bans and bathroom bills, Montague is somewhat LGBTQ friendly, though not so friendly as to support gay marriage (“my belief is one man and one woman”). He also promotes the long-disproven trope that kids will “experiment” if they even discuss LGBTQ topics in school. 

However, he says his nonprofit House of Timothy provides a safe haven for boys who have been thrown out of their homes for being gay (“We treat them just like everybody else; we don’t let them be judged, abused”). And when he ran for Congress, he included an LGBTQ task force along with those for women and veterans. That was enough for at least one Christian group, Searching for Wilberforce, to publicly break with him, citing his association with “Sodomite activists.” 

Montague told VoxPopuli in a March interview at the Pacific Dharma kava bar, “Our assignment is to show love, no matter what. We’re not here to convert them to anything. We’re here to provide a service.” 

That said, and despite a commitment to “patient rights and medical freedom” and opposition to “government overreach," Montague does not support gender-affirming care for trans youth. He wrote on X in 2022, “Pumping children full of puberty blockers is not ‘gender-affirming care.’ It's child abuse and should be treated as such by authorities."

Montague is also out of step with the Florida GOP on handling homelessness. He disagrees with the Republican-sponsored law that prohibits sleeping and camping in public spaces. Critics have said the law criminalizes poverty and homelessness and has roots in the post-Civil War, anti-vagrancy Black Codes. In Florida, 30,756 people experienced homelessness on a given night in 2023, the latest year available, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. 

“Where are they going to go?” Montague asked, referring to people experiencing homelessness in Orange County.

He wants to see affordable housing. “Actual affordable housing,” he said, “where people can take care of their kids and not feel like they have to go get a loan every week.” 

But also aligned with the party 

Montague embraces classic GOP positions on topics like immigration, the Second Amendment and reproductive health. 

He unequivocally supports the GOP’s immigration policies. As a guest on the Afro TV daytime talk show The Sisaundra Show in June, he said, “I do believe we do need to have mass deportation. I believe we need to make sure we’re securing …what belongs to the American citizens first.”  

Asked by host Sisaundra Lewis if he believed in due process, Montague responded, “most of the individuals that have come to the United States care nothing about our due process … the majority of the individuals that are coming here are simply wanting to go past the due process …They’re coming over and they’re wanting to live off of what we have built as a foundation of the United States,” he said, demonstrating that he doesn’t understand that due process protects immigrants from deportation without a court hearing.  

Montague is also a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, permit-less carry, arming teachers and lowering the age to purchase firearms to 18. He argues that if kids are old enough to go off to war, they are old enough to buy guns. 

Montague, who has said that gun reform is “racist,” owns a gun himself but also supports safe storage. He said his gun is stored in a safe with a biometric lock and key. He also supports holding parents accountable if they don’t demonstrate safe behavior around firearms and their child is responsible for a mass shooting. 

“It’s about responsible gun ownership,” he said. “The parent needs to be held accountable.” 

On reproductive health issues, Montague’s views reflect the antiabortion positions of the Republican Party. He backs fetal personhood legislation and opposes in vitro fertilization, popularly known as IVF, because of the potential for embryos to be discarded if they're not implanted.

In addition, he does not just want to outlaw abortion; he wants the medical procedure criminalized and for women who seek abortions to be penalized, even in cases of rape and even in instances when Florida women travel to states where it is legal after six weeks of gestation. 

“ We are free to move wherever, to whatever state you want to go, but if that person is coming back into the state knowing that this is the law that is here, I do believe there needs to be some kind of penalty,” he said. 

“Nine times out of 10, they're gonna go back and they're gonna have sex again, right? And it could be a possibility they get pregnant again. How many times are they going to keep crossing back and forth over because they don't like the laws of their state?” he said. 

When it comes to education, Montague favors school choice. His residential House of Timothy includes a school, which at the time of this interview was not yet eligible for vouchers, but Montague said it was something he was pursuing. 

Montague also supports the book bans that have forced media specialists and teachers throughout Florida to remove 4,218 books — more than any other state — for sexual content. Thirty-six percent of the books involved people or characters of color and 25 percent included LGBTQ characters. While admitting that the main problem with underage access to sexual content is apps like TikTok, Montague still said he didn’t want books like Toni Morrison’s classics The Bluest Eye or Beloved, which include descriptions of sexual assault, “on the shelves of the schools.” 

“Those types of things should be able to be something that is provided solely at home,” he said. 

Montague also shares the right’s aversion to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), though perhaps not for the same reasons. He doesn’t believe that Black people are “entitled” to jobs or spots at universities because of race. 

“Republicans, we say we’re a ‘big tent.’ We need more engagement in the inner city communities. We need to be out there doing that. I just wouldn’t put it under that term because I feel that some people have taken it — DEI — and abused it … You’re not ‘entitled.’ If I’m going to give you an opportunity, you need to come in here and work just as hard as everybody else. Don’t like Oh, ‘cause I’m the Black guy I’m just gonna sit here.” 

On the other hand, Montague is not at all opposed to lending a helping hand. He embraces the ‘teach them to fish’ model by giving small business owners a leg up to get their operations going. He tells the story about a small resource center he set up a few years ago in a strip mall on Hiawassee Road. Someone donated computers, someone else donated some furniture. And there was a gift of $10,000 for microgrants. Montague doled out tiny grants of a few hundred dollars so that fledgling business owners could do things like file the paperwork for their limited-liability companies. 

“I feel like if Republicans are about fiscal responsibility and free market solution, that’s the biggest opportunity for us. Teach them how to fish, you know. If you don’t want the government to be involved, that’s a place to start. It takes money to make money, so go out there and help them start a business so they don’t have to come back and need food stamps. That’s why my heart is kind of moderate. People want to thrive but we have to help them from some point. We can’t just be I’m not giving them nothing. Then all they’re gonna do is sit on food stamps.”