Ronald Beaty Jr., who was elected to the three-person Barnstable County Commission as a Republican in 2016 and defeated in his reelection race in 2020, is running for a new four-year term to challenge the ideological “status quo” of the current commissioners, he says.

Beaty describes himself as a fiscal conservative, a proponent of limited government, and a supporter of former President Donald Trump. He says he can offer some “healthy debate and difference of opinion” at the county commission, which he calls a “rubber-stamp public body.”

“They’re all in one mold, so there’s really no diversity of thought,” says Beaty of current commissioners Ronald Bergstrom, Sheila Lyons, and Mark Forest, all Democrats.

Lyons and Forest are running for reelection in this year’s “pick two” contest in which they, Beaty, and Republican Cynthia Stead will all appear on the ballot and voters can pick two candidates for two seats.

Beaty was born in Barnstable and attended Yarmouth schools and Cape Cod Tech before graduating from Cushing Academy in Ashburnham in 1979. He attended Boston College for two years before dropping out and enlisting in the U.S. Army Reserve.

He was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison after sending written death threats in 1990 to then-President George H.W. Bush, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, and state Sen. Lois Pines. He signed the death threats in the name of his ex-wife, who was an Iranian citizen, in an attempt to have her deported, he told the online magazine Cape Cod Wave four years ago.

“I don’t believe it defines who I am and what I’ve done since then,” says Beaty, who has called his political career a kind of penance. “I’ve made my mistakes, but who in this life hasn’t made mistakes?”

After his time in prison, Beaty went back to school. He earned a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Boston College in 1994, a master’s degree in educational technology from Lesley University in 2003, and a master’s degree in administrative studies from Boston College in 2005.

He worked in real estate management and married his wife, Chanda, 30 years ago. In his free time, he writes poetry, he says, and he sent an ode to Provincetown to a reporter to prove it.

In his 2016 campaign, Beaty called himself the “Donald Trump of Cape Cod” on social media. He now says that radio talk show host Pat Desmarais gave him that moniker.

“I didn’t refute it,” Beaty says. “I embraced it at the time, for better or for worse.

“I’m not Donald Trump,” he adds.

Beaty says that Lyons and Forest have failed at “cooperative governance.”

“Their refusal to acknowledge the assembly of delegates’ rightful role has led to unnecessary bureaucratic battles and political posturing, wasting taxpayer money,” Beaty said.

He strongly supports ballot Question #6, which would amend the county charter to give the assembly power “to increase, decrease, add or omit items to the annual budget” proposed by county commissioners, along with the ability to initiate supplemental appropriations ordinances.

Beaty says he wants to end the “abuse” of local taxpayers and “restore local control, balance, transparency, and fiscal accountability” to county government.

He also wants to overhaul the county’s wastewater infrastructure, incentivize developers to build affordable housing, and establish a moratorium on offshore wind development.

“I’m not saying permanently ‘no’ because that’s not going to wash with the state,” Beaty says, but offshore wind farms “need to be reassessed so we can think more clearly about what we’re doing.”

Beaty’s term as a county commissioner can fairly be called disruptive. After a homophobic tweet he sent in 2019 — “Generally speaking, are gay politicians too self-absorbed and self-centered to adequately represent ALL of their constituents in a fair and equitable manner?” he wrote — six members of Cape Cod’s legislative delegation, including five Republicans, called on him  to resign as commissioner.

Beaty responded by saying that “voters will decide whether I stay in office in 2020, not a group of apparently elitist politicians.”

Beaty won the largest number of votes in Bourne and Sandwich the next year but lost the other 13 towns on Cape Cod and his seat on the commission.

Beaty said his key accomplishments during his term in office included a voluntary early retirement program, engaging the state auditor to conduct a financial analysis, and trimming the county’s budget.

He also described himself as a “government watchdog,” citing a series of open meeting law complaints he filed against the county commission, the state ethics commission, and other public bodies, some of which have been upheld.