A woman who has stopped speaking to her Republican politician father about his right-wing views has denied allegations that she is using her public chasm for “fifteen minutes of fame” and said she wishes they could mend their relationship.
Maddie Block, 25, of Massachusetts, was a vocal critic of her father, Jay Block, a Sandoval County commissioner and failed New Mexico gubernatorial candidate.
The author, who is a registered Democrat, opened up about her changing political views and fractured relationship with her father in an essay for Newsweek, sharing they have not seen each other in person for two years.
“I miss my dad all the time but I don’t know how to fix this bridge,” she wrote. “Of course it’s frustrating.
“I’ve been accused online of exploiting the rift with my dad for my fifteen minutes of fame, but that’s absolutely not the case. I would much rather have a relationship with my father than feel like I have to use my online platform to talk about it.
Maddie Block, 25, of Massachusetts, was a vocal critic of her father, Jay Block, a Sandoval County commissioner and failed New Mexico gubernatorial candidate
The author (pictured with her father) opened up about their broken relationship in an essay for Newsweek, saying she hasn’t seen him in two years
Maddie explained that she was born in Florida but lived in multiple states and countries with her close-knit family while her father was in the US Air Force.
“Like many kids, I was fed his views and opinions growing up, so for a while I thought I was a Republican too,” she recalled.
Maddie was exposed to more liberal views while attending school in Germany and the Netherlands. She got to know socialized medicine first hand and worked voluntarily with Syrian refugees.
She said her opinions at the time were often considered “far right” by her peers, but it wasn’t until she was in college and started meeting new people that her political beliefs really started to change.
Maddie was still close to her father when he retired from the military in 2016 and ran for the Sandoval County Board of County Commissioners.
Maddie said her father always “fell to the right of the political spectrum,” but he became “increasingly right” after being elected Sandoval County Commissioner
Maddie shared that it was their differing views on the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the end of their relationship in November 2020
She moved back to the US to help with his campaign, but did not tell him about her changing views. Though she knew she was “not a Republican anymore,” she was still figuring out her beliefs.
Maddie explained that her father “always veered to the right on the political spectrum,” but she believes he became “increasingly right-wing” after winning the election.
She found many of his views difficult to hear, including his anti-abortion stance, and they began to clash politically in the years that followed.
Maddie claimed he wouldn’t take what she said seriously, even if she was factually right. Her parents also divorced around this time, adding to the strain.
But it was their differing views on the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the end of their relationship in November 2020.
Maddie, who is half-Korean, has criticized her father for using his multiracial children as a “political tool” when not speaking to them
She explained that her father blocked her on social media after speaking out against his COVID response because she felt it was putting her “loved ones” at risk.
“My ‘pro-life’ dad doesn’t even care that he may have infected dozens of people with COVID because of his carelessness,” she tweeted in December. “I see pictures he posts all the time of him not wearing a mask and eating out at restaurants with groups of friends, but yeah he’s ‘for life’.
By Christmas, she said they didn’t speak at all.
Maddie insisted in her essay that she wanted to work on her relationship with her father, but she also needed him to understand “the seriousness of the situation” and why she was “slamming him on social media.”
She said he called her a few months later to say he was running for governor of New Mexico, but they weren’t able to work through her issues.
Maddie has repeatedly criticized her father for claiming he is pro-life and family when he’s not speaking to his own children.
In her essay, she explained that she misses her father and didn’t want to “swear badly at him,” but felt she had to because he was an elected official
Maddie slammed the politician on Twitter in December 2021 after he called New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham “disgusting” for being pro-election
In December 2021, she called the commissioner over the attack on New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for her endorsement of the election.
“Don’t you love it when people cheer about killing babies? This is exactly what @GovMLG supports, celebrates and applauds. Pretty disgusting but not surprised by their behavior and values of killing the unborn. #ProLife,” Jay tweeted.
Responding on Twitter, she wrote: “My dad likes to call women ‘disgusting’ when they stand up for themselves. He also called me “disgusting” when I advised him not to take COVID seriously and when I questioned his abusive behavior towards my mother and siblings before leaving and disowning us all. ‘Pro-Life ‘my a**.’
Maddie, who is half-Korean, later accused her father of using his “interracial” children as a political tool in another April 2021 tweet.
“He doesn’t speak to me or my siblings, but he can claim he has mixed-race children if it’s politically useful?” she wrote. “The last time we spoke he yelled at me that I disgust him and that I’m not his daughter.”
Maddie has also been open about her strained relationship with her father and his alleged hypocrisy on TikTok, where she has more than 14,000 followers.
Maddie has also been open about her strained relationship with her father and his alleged hypocrisy on TikTok, where she has more than 14,000 followers
She went viral in June after calling her father a “pro-life” and overthrowing Roe v. Wade celebrated when he wasn’t talking to his own children
In June, she went viral after criticizing her father for allowing Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion at the federal level.
Using the app’s green screen, she called up his tweet, which read, “This court has published judgments protecting our liberties and our lives! This has been a great week for freedom and the unborn!!!’
“My ‘pro-life’ politician dad, who doesn’t speak to any of his living, breathing children, has the audacity,” she hit back in the onscreen caption.
“The hypocrisy of the Republican Party never ceases to amaze me,” she captioned the video, which has been viewed more than 1.6 million times.
Maddie admitted in her essay for Newsweek that she has conflicting feelings about using her social media platform to smack her father.
“I don’t want to sit there and put my father down, but on the other hand, I have my values and what I think is best for society,” she explained. “Because my father is an elected official, I think it changes things.
Maddie admitted in her essay for Newsweek that she has conflicted feelings about using her social media platform to smack her father, but she wants to do what’s “best for society.”
“I would much rather have a relationship with my father than feel like I have to use my online platform to talk about it,” she wrote
“He is able to implement his views, unlike the average person, who, while holding conservative views, does not necessarily have the ability to enact laws or policies consistent with his worldview.”
Maddie isn’t the only political daughter who has taken to social media to call out to a Republican parent in recent years.
Claudia Conway, 17, has repeatedly spoken out against her mother, Kellyanne Conway, who served as a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump.
In July, the teenager organized a protest against the Roe v. Wade in Englewood, New Jersey, and stated that she would not celebrate the Fourth of July because Americans are “not free.”
That same month, Korynn Dickey, 20, railed against her father, Republican Senator Adrian Dickey, after he supported a bill that asked the Iowa Supreme Court to overturn a previous ruling that called abortion a “fundamental right.”
In a series of TikTok videos, she accused him of abuse and claimed that she suffered from PTSD as a result of his “mind games.”
“Look, I’m a bisexual Pisces and he’s a Republican senator who helped take away my rights as a woman and the possibility of one day marrying the girl of my dreams,” she wrote in the on — Onscreen text of a clip.