Kristina and Bob Lange outside their business on Sugartown Rd. in Malvern.
When lifelong Willistown Republican and 5th-generation farmer Bob Lange and his wife filmed a political commercial explaining why they wouldn’t be voting for Donald Trump in November, he figured a few feathers might be ruffled.
What he didn’t expect was an onslaught of harassment so pervasive and so profane, police are now keeping an eye on his property and the Harris campaign is paying for security cameras.
What the couple calls “a bit of a nightmare” began when Lange participated in a Zoom call of PA Republicans voting for Democrat Kamala Harris.
As a plainspoken family farmer in a battleground state, Lange’s words caught the attention of the Harris campaign.
Here was a high-profile Republican, an elected township supervisor for 27 years, who had voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. He had no plan to switch parties but he would be switching his vote in November. Seeing campaign gold in “Farmer Bob” (his local moniker), the Harris team asked Lange if he would consider sharing his views in a commercial.
Lange agreed and in late summer, a roughly 10-person video team descended on his farm on Sugartown Road. Over two days, they shot B-roll of the Langes on their farm and interviewed Bob and Kristina on camera.
A screen grab of background footage from the Lange’s pro-Harris campaign ad. Lange’s grandmother was the first donor to Natural Lands when she gave the land preservation nonprofit 46 acres to put into perpetual conversation easement in 1961, Lange says. His forebears donated the ground for St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church and gave up land on Sugartown Rd. for Willistown’s township building and police station.
“It was an off-the-cuff conversation except cameras were in our face. Nothing was scripted,” Bob tells SAVVY, adding that the production team was “very young, very energetic and very professional.”
The footage was edited into three TV commercials and a radio spot.
One TV ad was generic.
Another ad focused on Bob with a message targeting rural PA farmers.
A third zeroed in on Kristina Chadwick Lange.
At first, Kristina, who has also voted for Trump, refused to go on camera. “I’ve always been very private about my political views. I knew there was going to be some kind of backlash from unbalanced people.”
But as the cameras rolled, she found herself pumping up her husband from the sidelines and making suggestions.
And just like that, she changed her mind.
“I decided to do it – and I think [the Harris’ campaign] was pretty happy that I did … I just spoke naturally about my thoughts as a woman. I spoke passionately about my belief that a woman’s reproductive rights are not the decision of the government.”
Last Tuesday, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” aired and discussed one of the new ads. That’s when hell broke loose.
It started when a prolific X (formerly Twitter) user, “Bad Hombre” – his profile is “Political commentary. Catholic. Populist.” – saw the commercial and declared it a fake.
According to “Bad Hombre,” the Langes weren’t ordinary Pennsylvanians; they were “trained actors, film producers and farmers” and “prolific regular donors to DEMOCRATS for over a decade.”
The post (shown below) included photos of the couple, the name and phone number of Sugartown Strawberries, and a screenshot of a Willistown Township web page that lists Bob Lange as chair of the board of supervisors with a link to his township email address.
The post’s inference? The two were fraudulent actors shilling for Harris so feel free to chime in and contact them about their “deception.”
The post went viral with 2 million views, 29,000 reposts, 3,200 quotes and 59,000 likes. It unleashed a torrent of attacks.
A rash of piling on and cyberbullying soon hit the Sugartown Strawberries Facebook page and website. Many critics were MAGA folks who called the “fake” ad typical of the Harris campaign. At least one woman urged people to wreck their family business.
A series of one-star Google reviews ensued, which Google has since flagged as fraudulent and removed.
SAVVY independently reviewed scores of nasty social media posts. The Langes were called RINOS, traitors and frequently, far worse.
We also listened to a shockingly profane voicemail the Lange’s played for us at Sugartown Strawberries farm store.
The Langes replay one of dozens of toxic, profane voicemails on the farm market’s phone. Kristina Lange has been spending hours monitoring social media, trying to block and delete inflammatory posts and thanking customers who post encouraging words.
As of last Friday, Sugartown Strawberries had received dozens of voicemails and hang-ups. The Langes tell us they are saving every vicious voicemail and turning them over to Willistown police.
“The police have told us all the [callers’] phone numbers were bogus,” Bob says.
During our interview with the Langes last Friday, the farm store’s phone rang repeatedly and the couple kept reminding Kristina’s daughter, who was minding the store at the time, not to pick up.
When we first reached out to Bob Lange for an interview, we received this wary email response:
“We would like to set the record straight but not by phone. You certainly can come out to our farm market with your proper credentials so we feel it is legit. So far we have had bogus requests from the BBC and Swedish MPR.”
Police traced those BBC and Swedish “reporters” and found them bogus, too, according to the Langes.
As for setting the record straight, the Langes have plenty to say.
X’s “Bad Hombre” confused him with a different Robert Lange: “a Democratic megadonor from Germantown,” Bob Lange tells us.
The “Kristina Chadwick” donations shown in the post came from Kristina Chadwick McGrath, who works as a scenic artist at the Arden Theater, not Kristina Chadwick Lange, a former paralegal who worked in commercial land title but who now works full-time alongside her husband. (The Langes’ farm is basically a two-person operation.)
With help from Bob’s cousins and the community, the Langes did indeed write, produce and fund the low-budget horror film, Hayride to Hell, shot on their farm a few years ago.
The film stars iconic horror film actors Bill Moseley (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” “Night of the Living Dead”) and Kane Hodder (Jason in “Friday the 13th). Bob and Kristina tell us they did it all for Hayride: they were executive producers, screenwriters and boom operators, served food to the cast, and had “very small, non-speaking roles as monsters.”
So no, the Langes hardly qualify as actors. Just ask the film’s director about their acting abilities, they joke. “I just wanted to do my best to protect our farm so it can continue to be in my family when we’re gone,” Bob explains. “We decided to think outside the box and make a movie.”
Hayride to Hell can now be viewed on a dozen streaming services through Halloween. The Langes hope it becomes a cult classic. If it does, proceeds will help save their 230-acre farm, Willistown’s third largest, “from the development which is happening all around us,” Bob says.
In the middle of last week, the Langes were shell-shocked and shaken by the vitriole. As the week wore on, they became angry and disheartened.
“It’s really sad how the truth is not being told,” Bob says. “If you try to refute it, they deny it. I just wish someone with common sense from that organization could do a little bit of homework and some accurate fact checking and say: Robert Lange is a lifelong Republican. He’s a Willistown Township Supervisor. He’s a full-time farmer. Chester County awarded me its “farmer of the year” award. They gave me the ‘distinguished service to agriculture’ award. I’m a family farmer who made a movie to save the farm that’s been in my family since 1896.”
Still, amid the hailstorm, a rainbow has emerged.
While some Willistown neighbors have joined the chorus of haters, most have been supportive, leaving positive messages on social media – their own and Sugartown Strawberries.” More than a few have stopped in the farm store to applaud the couple’s courage.
“Yesterday was a feel-good day,” Bob says. “I can get really emotional.” The owner of Wilistown’s largest farm, Caroline Moran, had dropped by and spent “a lot of money” on Sugartown’s pumpkins.
Two strangers of like mind who were on that first PA Republicans for Harris zoom – one from Berks County, one from Philadelphia – showed up at the farm to offer support, one bearing a bouquet of his own farm-grown flowers.
“When people stop in the store and say I just want to thank you for your courage, it’s beautiful. It really is,” says Kristina.
But knowing what they know now, do they regret filming the commercial?
“No, we have no regrets,” Bob affirms. “The Harris team asked us if we wanted them to take the ads down. I said, ‘Absolutely not.’”
Adds Kristina: “We’re not backing down. I feel it’s just a matter of standing up for what I believe is right – and that’s my right.”
They would love to tell their story to a wider audience, perhaps on national TV. “We want the opportunity to say, ‘We’re Republican farmers Bob and Kristina Lange. We’re not actors and we’re not Democratic donors.”
Editor’s note: Repeated requests for comment from Chester County Republican Party chair Raffi Terzian and other GOP leaders went unanswered.
EDITOR’S UPDATE: Hear the latest from Bob and Kristina Lange, special guests on SAVVY Main Line’s latest podcast episode, “All Politics is Personal,” available Nov. 2 on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
You write “MAGA folk” as if it’s a bad thing…..
We meant no such thing. Social media accounts that attacked the Langes describe themselves as MAGA. We would have done the same story if the tables were turned and a prominent lifelong Democrat and family business owner filmed a commercial in support of Trump and faced so much personal and professional backlash.
Caroline, disappointed you decided to include this contentious political story in your SAVVY post. Doubt most people know why or even care why this couple decided to vote as Democrats. Posting this story, however, does nothing, but add to the current political discord.
Thanks for weighing in. On this one, we can respectfully agree to disagree. Bob Lange has been an elected leader of Willistown Township for 27 years and he owns a well-known local business. His politics – one way or other – aren’t really the issue here. The personal attack on his livelihood and reputation are. The hope is that this story opens eyes and helps him clear his name.
Disagree. It dispels the false narrative that they were paid actors. It’s never a bad thing to correct false information.
Robert Lange and Kristina Chadwick Lange are Turncoat Republicans and I’m sure they didn’t do the commercial for free. Trump definitely isn’t perfect but you’ve got to be totally blind to vote for Harris/Walz.
The sad detritus of the vitriol, lies, cruelty and deliberate diminution of the Democratic ticket and Democrats, is painful to read, hear and watch. I am so sorry for the Langs and many others who are in the wake of this hateful surge spreading across our country where malice has become the highlight of news coverage equal to a monster hurricane with over 90 people dead, so far, a war in the Middle East and a never-ending war in the Ukraine. I cry at the news when I hear playback of words uttered by the man running for President of the United States Thank you for your work on this ( and many other) stories.
Go Langes! I admire your courage. We will be watching the movie AND buying pumpkins So I can carve VOTE Harris/ Walz in them.
I’ll definitely be visitng Sugartown Straberries this week to show my support! Thank you Bob and Kristina for speaking up. And thanks for spotlighting this Caroline, so that we in the community can come out in force to support these folks.
We love you Lange’s and your farm. Thanks for staying strong and speaking your truth.
I 100% support the Lang’s in supporting Kamala. So proud of them for speaking out for what is right and speaking publicly about it.
So proud of you two standing up for your beliefs & your country! Thank you!!
Pure and Simple. The Langes are Patriots! They are the “We the People” the Founders of this country wished to support. The Founders established a Republic, not a monarchy. So glad my neighbors in Malvern are supporting their Constitutional Rights.
Lifelong republican? He’s been donating to Democratic political campaigns for nearly a decade! The whole premise here is wrong !
This is debunked in the article.
You need to do a fact check. That is a different Lange!
Exactly!
Please show us proof. What has been posted on X is false. As my story states – and I thoroughly investigated this – that Democratic donor is Bob Lange from Germantown and is not Bob Lange from Willistown.
I had to check out this story. That you would even tread into political waters with this news story is astounding. Stick to your stupid restaurant reviews. At least you’ll get a few good free meals. They like catering to privileged Main Liners.
I had to laugh when I saw this comment. You obviously have envy for what she does and that’s fine/whatever. However, don’t presume because she’s a woman that she can’t buy her own dinner.
Ya got that right, Snookie!
Already debunked, and easily fact checked
True Patriots
Really sad that civility in our society is a thing of the past. Some folks who want to make America great again are certainly not acting great.
Thank you Caroline for this story. What a world we live in! Sending my support 🙂
I’m a committee person for the Chester County GOP, and I have absolutely no authority to speak on its behalf. My entire comment is from me as a private citizen.
First, it’s unfortunate that Savvy didn’t (or perhaps was prevented from) posting the ad. Without that, the story is incomplete.
Now, regardless, vitriol is generally wrong, yet how long have the Democrats been spewing hate toward the Republicans? Ever since Donald Trump came down the escalator—9 years ago. And they haven’t let up for a single day through two impeachments and four different court cases (all of which are completely bogus), Russia, Russia, Russia, Hunter’s laptop, and on and on to the point that there have (so far) been two assassination attempts on Donald Trump. So NOW they get all bent out of shape when they’re called names. Boo-hoo!
Like most Democrats, they have no self-awareness.
Second, if anyone thinks this is about Trump, or even Harris, they’re both stupid and uninformed. Look around you: Who’s allowed “662,566 noncitizens with criminal records… 13,099 criminally convicted MURDERERS… and 277 illegal aliens convicted of homicide” (ICE stats from July 2024) plus a slew of other undesirable characters and millions of illegal aliens into our country?
Who’s allowing boys—and men—to invade, yes, INVADE, women’s bathrooms, lockers, and prisons? Who’s responsible for the inflation that has gripped all of us, regardless of how wealthy you might be (and Chester County is one of the wealthiest counties in the USA)?
Who has just this past week succumbed to the UN flouting our Constitution? Who is swimming neck deep in the pool of anti-semitism?
Who sends billions of dollars to Iran and condemns Israel for killing the terrorists that want to destroy Israel—and then come after America? Who abandoned $80 billion of military equipment and allowed 13 of our service men and women to be blown up as we turned out backs on those individuals in Iraq who were helping us?
Who?
The Democrats. The list of what the Democrats have done (and continue to do) to destroy our country is long, and YOU’RE the danger to this country if you think otherwise.
Yes, this Republican couple will now vote for Harris, but look at the PROMINENT Democrats who cannot support Harris, and say—out loud—that the Democrat Party is a danger to our country: Alan Dershowitz, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr.
If the Democrats would understand just 10% of what Republicans know, they’d be shocked beyond their imagination. Much of the mainstream press—NY Times, AP, Washington Post as just three sources—had only praise to say about the head of Hezbollah. They could not bring themselves to call him a terrorist
And you think the Republicans are a danger to this country. You’re an utter fool!
You are in a cult. Some day you will wake up and realize it. Trump is the worst thing to ever happen to this country and to a once respectable political parts. He is a serial con man and criminal. I never voted for a democrat for president until trump. Why?, because I’ve seen what a dirtbag trump is and always has been since the early 80’s. He is the least qualified person to be president since Andrew Johnson. The Republican Party of actual leaders like John McCain, George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan and is long dead. Once trump and maga are gone for good maybe it can be rebuilt and a functioning two party system will exist. I feel sad for you and the other twits that believe the same nonsense.
Agree 100%! Guess Edward fails to recall who started the vitriol and continues to this day. As a woman I will not go back and will never forget trump and his court taking away Roe. I will also never forget Jan.6 and how I watched in horror as trump was entertained!
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
You are the exact reason why I left the Republican Party and have never looked back. I, for one, am not keen on drinking the Republican cult Koolaid. This couple is brave to step out and express their views. I applaud them and will be looking to pay their farm a visit to tell them in person. My hope is that someday the Republican Party can stop the hate and produce a candidate worthy of the office.
Edward writes, “Who’s allowed “662,566 noncitizens with criminal records… 13,099 criminally convicted MURDERERS… and 277 illegal aliens convicted of homicide” (ICE stats from July 2024)…”
The answer in terms of Administration(s): Biden, Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr., & Reagan. The numbers released by ICE encompass over 40 years. These numbers were being so misused that ICE had to release a email statment stating as much.
Ty Caroline ! Love Sugartown Strawberries and can’t wait to return
Caroline, thank you for covering this story. It is the first that I’ve heard of it. I join others in supporting the Langes courage in speaking out. I will definitely be stopping by their farm for a pumpkin or two.
Everyone has the right to vote for the candidate they believe in, and I respect your choice. It’s a sign of the times that this simple act is considered courageous, but it’s a reminder of what freedom in this country really means. It’s worth observing how one party seems so violently unsettled by the decisions of just two voters. It’s clear who’s feeling the pressure. And desperation.
Thank you Caroline. If it weren’t for your article we would not be aware. We have
not watched network TV since 2016! I see from comments above that you too are paying the price of relaying the truth.
We stopped by the farm yesterday and experienced the joy the Langes’ feel from the onslaught of community support. They seem relieved and quite surprised there are people who care. And we brought home beautiful mums and pumpkins too..
I am thrilled that the Langes are feeling the love! No one deserves to be attacked for sharing their beliefs nor should we fall for Internet trolls spewing easily debunked falsehoods that are amplified by lazy media outlets looking for cheap clicks.
Kudos to you Caroline for your excellent journalism! I was not aware that this was happening to our main line country neighbors and it is so disheartening. The Langes are a great model of integrity and bravery. I also applaud they and their family’s generous donations and concern for maintaining open land spaces.
BTW I really enjoy your restaurant reviews and count on them to keep up to date on local businesses.
Thank you for this article and debunking the claim!
I’m sorry that the Langes have had trouble just because of how they want to vote. Good for them for not giving in! I will tell everyone I know about this story.
I have experienced a lot of grief from other people because I am voting for Trump. I’m in a “blue” state and people here like to destroy Trump signs and harass anyone that dares to vote for Trump.
Thanks for sharing this article. It’s great to know that a falsehood amplified by Sky News and shared all over the globe, including by Trump’s social media, was debunked by my boots-on-the-ground reporting of FACTS and TRUTH here on the Main Line. I appreciate that SKY News has retracted its inflammatory election lie.