Draft:Clay Clark

Clayton Griswold Clark (born 1980) is a conservative business coach, author, podcaster and entrepreneur in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is the founder of the Thrivetime Show on Rumble and the ReAwaken America Tour.

Business career
As a teenager, Clark founded DJ Connections in his home state of Minnesota. He moved the business to Tulsa when he relocated there to attend Oral Roberts University. During these years, Clark was a party and wedding disc-jockey who went by “DJ Clay.” In addition to DJ Connections, he founded several other businesses, including Thrive 15 and Elephant in the Room. In 2007, Clark's success led to his being named Oklahoma's Young Entrepreneur of the Year. His current venture is the Thrive Time Show, a multi-focused business that incorporates a business podcast and business coaching.

2009 Tulsa mayoral election
Clark announced that he was a candidate in the 2009 Tulsa mayoral election. His platform was that of a “staunch republican [sic] conservative” who was pro-life and anti-illegal immigration. He withdrew from the race and supported fellow Republican Chris Medlock’s unsuccessful attempt to win his party's nomination and replace Kathy Taylor.

COVID-19 disinformation
In August 2020, Clark helped initiate a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa for its mask mandate to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The lawsuit alleged that wearing masks caused oxygen deprivation, leading to "migraine headaches, shortness of breath and dizziness." The lawsuit was dropped in March 2021.

Clark has publicly espoused his belief in COVID-19 misinformation|COVID-19 conspiracy theories. When he spoke at the January 5, 2021, rally held at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., in support of Donald Trump's protest of the outcome of the 2020 United States presidential election, Clark told attendees that the COVID-19 pandemic coronavirus pandemic was a hoax and instructed them to "turn to the person next to you and give them a hug, someone you don’t know. Go hug somebody. Go ahead and spread it out, mass spreader. It’s a mass-spreader event!"

On a June 2021 episode of The Stew Peters Show, he argued that the COVID-19 vaccine contained Luciferase, which he believed was a cryptocurrency technology associated with the Mark of the Beast prophesied in Book of Revelation. This conspiracy, according to Clark, included Bill Gates, under the influence of performance artist (and alleged Satanist) Marina Abramović, and Jeffrey Epstein. Clark accused Gates and Epstein of attempting to create a new race of humans by combining luciferase and Epstein's DNA into the COVID-19 vaccine.

At an October 2021 rally in Salt Lake City, Utah, Clark claimed that "COVID-19 is 100 percent treatable using budesonide, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin." He also accused George Soros of funding remdesivir, a drug used to treat severe cases of COVID-19 but which Clark said was "killing COVID-19 patients in the hospital because it causes renal failure."

Clay Clark's ReAwaken America Tour
According to Clark, as the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, he asked God, "What can I do to stop the quarantines, the curfews, the mandates, the lockdowns?" The answer he received, Clark said, with "100% of God-ordained clarity . . . was to begin reawakening America."

In the spring of 2021, Clark inaugurated the "Health and Freedom" events to protest COVID-19 mitigation measures such as masking and vaccinations. According to Clark, he was inspired to undertake the tour by a 1963 prophecy by the Charismatic minister, Kenneth E. Hagin, who predicted that "there would be an atheistic, communist, Marxist and racially divisive spirit that would descend upon America" and that "the spark of the revival would start from Tulsa, Oklahoma." Clark also stated that he received confirmation of his importance from a 2013 prophecy by the South-African Charismatic evangelist Kim Clement, who identified a "Mr. Clark" about whom he believed God said: "You have been determined through your prayers to influence this nation. You're watching me; you're an influential person. The Spirit of God says, 'Hear the word of the prophet to you as a king, I will open that door that you prayed about.'"

In the summer of 2021, these "Health and Freedom" events were rebranded the ReAwaken America Tour, sponsored by Charisma News. While the events (under both names) initially received attention for their opposition to COVID-19 mitigation measures, from the beginning, they also focused significant attention on supporting conspiracy theories related to the 2020 United States presidential election, including those espoused by QAnon followers. The number and identities of the speakers at each 2021 event varied. Michael Flynn and Mike Lindell were frequent speakers; a partial list of other speakers included Devin Nunes, Kash Patel Jim Caviezel, Sean Feucht, Alex Jones, Alan Keyes, Greg Locke, Lara Logan, Sidney Powell, Roger Stone, Lara Trump and Eric Trump. At one notable ReAwaken America Tour event held in November 2021 at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, Clark reportedly led attendees in the "Let's Go Brandon!" chant, a euphemism used in place of the more explicit "Fuck Joe Biden!" At the same event, Michael Flynn stated, "If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God."

Personal life
Clark is married to Vanessa, a former contestant in the Mrs. Oklahoma contest. They have five children, who are homeschooled. One of their sons, Aubrey, was born blind but was miraculously healed, according to Vanessa Clark. Clark's father Thom, died of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2016, was a college graduate and worked for DJ Connections.

Clay Clark is a devout Christian and runs his own church called ‘The Remnant Church’ in Jenks, Oklahoma, pastored by Leon Benjamin. He also organizes his own Christian podcaster, business and homeschooling conferences at his property in Jenks, Oklahoma.