Victor Marx, the founder of All Things Possible Ministries and the Republican nominee for governor of Colorado, has made a series of extraordinary claims about doing battle with supernatural creatures and other adversaries as part of what he describes as his "high-risk missionary" work.

According to his 2024 book "The Dangerous Gentleman," as reported by Talking Points Memo, the Marine Corps veteran has built his public persona on a range of remarkable personal assertions. These include single-handedly defeating more than 10 armed soldiers in the jungles of Myanmar and witnessing people physically transform during alleged demonic encounters.

Marx writes that he has carried out what could be understood as exorcisms in war zones and prisons. In one passage, he describes a captured "ISIS commander" in Iraq whose face "became contorted" and whose ears grew "pointy," and who he claims was photographed mid-transformation. Marx did not respond to requests to view the alleged photographs. In another account, he describes a teenage girl at a youth detention facility "tearing at her own flesh," speaking in an "unnatural voice," and emitting a smell of "sulfur and rotten eggs."

Marx secured the Republican nomination in June after defeating three primary opponents, but his claims have drawn persistent scrutiny, including disputed assertions about his martial arts credentials and vague answers about how many people he has rescued or killed in conflict zones. In an interview with Kyle Clark of Denver's 9News, Marx declined to give specific figures and downplayed his earlier description of himself as a "reluctant exorcist," while not disputing the substance of the encounters described in his book.

The Republican candidate is viewed as a long shot against Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser, who has held the office since 2019, with the Cook Political Report rating the race "solid D" — its designation for contests viewed as safely Democratic. The November general election will decide an open-seat race to succeed term-limited Democratic Governor Jared Polis, and no Republican has won Colorado's governorship since Bill Owens was re-elected in 2002. Marx's candidacy has also produced friction inside his own party, including the recent resignation of the vice chair of the Denver Republican Party, who stepped down rather than face a removal vote after refusing to back Marx.

Religion scholars say Marx reflects an emerging trend on the religious right, in which talk of demonic possession and "spiritual warfare" has moved from the fringe toward the mainstream alongside the rise of the MAGA movement. Brad Onishi, a former evangelical minister and researcher at UC Berkeley, cited White House faith adviser Paula White-Cain, Tucker Carlson's own claimed demonic encounter, and the late Charlie Kirk — who wrote the foreword to Marx's book — as evidence that such rhetoric has become normalized in conservative politics.

Onishi warned that the framing carries real risks, noting that casting political opponents as literally demonic can function as a justification for violence rather than democratic disagreement. Marx's book explicitly frames societal battles, including those over gender and LGBTQ issues, in these terms, urging men to become "dangerous" against what he calls the "demonic forces" behind secular institutions.

Marx did not respond to requests for comment on the claims in his book.