HBO host John Oliver ended his show Sunday night by mocking a 2015 Facebook post in which Peter Oberacker honored his grandfather, who died fighting for Nazi Germany. It was a fresh national humiliation for an upstate Republican whose own party has already written him off.
Oberacker, a Republican state senator challenging Democratic Rep. Josh Riley in a district stretching east from Binghamton and Ithaca to Rensselaer and Columbia counties, reported just $23,155 in cash on hand as of Oct. 14, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
On Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver devoted the full show to what he called the Republican Party’s growing comfort with “Nazi-adjacent” figures. Oberacker was among the current candidates he named, alongside national figures like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson.
Oliver dissected the Veterans Day post, in which Oberacker memorialized his grandfather. Oberacker has said it is the only photo of his grandfather he has. Oliver responded he should “maybe consider having no pictures of him!”
Oliver returned to Oberacker in his closing argument. He warned that the GOP is at a crossroads and that, without a reckoning, the party might end up like “a certain politician running in upstate New York,” left with one ugly picture.
What was in Oberacker’s 2015 post?
Politico’s Madison Fernandez first reported the post on Aug. 21. The photo showed Ludwig Oberacker in a uniform bearing Nazi insignia, including a Reichsadler pin, the Nazi Party’s eagle above a swastika. In the caption, Oberacker wrote, “I salute all who served.”
He has since deleted the post.
Oberacker has alternately defended the post and distanced himself from it. He told Politico his grandfather was a conscript killed at the Battle of the Bulge. He added that after serving on the Senate Republicans’ antisemitism task force, he “would look at it a little bit differently now.”
He has said the post was meant to acknowledge veterans of every historical conflict, and his campaign has characterized it as a personal reflection on family history and the tragedy of war, Hudson Valley One reported. In a statement at the time, he said he has always fought antisemitism, then turned his fire on Riley over Democrats like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, according to the Daily Gazette.
Riley condemned the post as a betrayal of the district’s Jewish community and an affront to its roughly 40,000 veterans, according to WIVT.
When the GOP pulled back
Within weeks of the post resurfacing, Oberacker’s own party began backing away from him. The Congressional Leadership Fund, the dominant House GOP super PAC, canceled $4.2 million in TV advertising reservations across the Binghamton, Syracuse, Albany and Troy markets, according to AdImpact data cited by Binghamton University’s Pipe Dream. The National Republican Congressional Committee also dropped him from its MAGA Majority program, which backs Trump-aligned candidates in competitive districts, the Cornell Daily Sun reported.
GOP sources cited both the post and the campaign’s spending, according to Axios. One source said the controversy was “not a killer, but when you add them all up it’s like, ‘eh.’”
Oberacker’s campaign responded that the race would be decided by the district’s voters, not in Washington backrooms, WIVT reported.
How much money does Oberacker have left?
His campaign’s finances have only deteriorated since then. After spending more than $1.4 million this cycle, the campaign also owes $100,000, FEC filings show. That figure matches the outstanding balance of the $130,000 Oberacker lent his own campaign.
Riley, by contrast, had $2.16 million on hand as of Sept. 30, according to FEC records. Oberacker had about $43,000 cash on hand at the time.
What’s the Young Republicans connection?
Oliver’s segment also spotlighted the leaked Young Republican group chat, which carries a local connection the show left unmentioned.
In October 2025, Politico published thousands of messages from a private Telegram chat among Young Republican leaders from several states. The messages were rife with racist and antisemitic slurs, jokes about gas chambers and rape, and professions of love for Adolf Hitler.
Two of the chat’s most prominent participants had close ties to New York’s GOP. One was Peter Giunta, a former chair of the New York State Young Republicans. The other was Bobby Walker, the group’s vice chair at the time, who was slated to manage Oberacker’s congressional campaign. In the chat, Walker called rape “epic” and repeatedly used a homophobic slur.
Walker’s offer to run Oberacker’s campaign was pulled after Politico began reporting on the chat. Within days, the state Republican Party voted unanimously to disband the New York State Young Republicans, Politico reported. Both Walker and Giunta apologized for their remarks but questioned whether the messages had been altered.
A campaign spokesperson said at the time that Walker had never been on the payroll and that any conversations about hiring him were immediately halted.
Where does the race stand?
Oberacker received President Donald Trump’s endorsement in February and was also endorsed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Pipe Dream reported. He has kept up his attacks on Riley. In a Newsmax appearance over the weekend, he accused the incumbent of absenteeism and hypocrisy on utility costs.
Oberacker’s campaign did not respond to Courier New York’s request for comment.
