Martin “Marty” O’Donnell, famous for composing music for the original Halo games and Destiny, is running for Congress in Nevada this year.
Despite saying he “never wanted to be a politician” in a lengthy March 4 post on X (formerly Twitter), O’Donnell felt it was his “civic duty” to “try and change things for the better” instead of retiring to spend time with his family like he originally planned. Championing traditional family values and increased security of the U.S.’s borders, O’Donnell will be standing as a Republican against incumbent Democrat Susie Lee this November, so long as he gets through the Republican primaries in June.
In an interview with GamesBeat, O’Donnell expressed confidence he’ll receive plenty of support given he has long-time fans of his work on Halo and Destiny. In particular, he highlighted his dedicated Discord server, dubbed the Marty Army. While it’s too soon to tell how much of an advantage this will give him (not every member is going to be based in Nevada and thus able to vote for him), I can believe he’ll get some votes purely because of his music rather than any of his policies. As for his policies, O’Donnell has mentioned closing the middle-class wage gap and wanting a government that stands up for families.
Unsurprisingly, his move to politics is proving controversial, to put it mildly. Standing as a Republican is one thing, but O’Donnell intends to support former president Donald Trump and vote to try and get him back in the White House, noting how “America enjoyed a secure border and no inflation in the Trump administration four years ago.” For someone who says he’s tired of the “toxic divisions that are tearing apart our families and society,” it’s ironic O’Donnell would want to keep backing perhaps the most toxic figure in recent politics.
On top of that, screenshots from O’Donnell’s Discord server shared on X (via Kotaku Australia) show him being questioned about his stance on Israel and Palestine. Rather than stay silent on the issue (like The Game Awards and so many others within the games industry), O’Donnell said Israel had the right to defend itself and is the “only democratic country in the Middle East.”
Following his firing from Bungie in 2014, O’Donnell founded his own video game studio, Highwire Games, in 2015. To date, it’s only launched two games: 2019’s Golem (which O’Donnell composed for) and early access military shooter Six Days in Fallujah, a game that’s just as controversial as O’Donnell is for its depiction of the actual second battle for Fallujah during the Iraq War.
