A south California Republican who welcomes drastic climate change with open arms was on Tuesday elected to a seat on the Golden State’s Legislature.

“Most of the Muslim nations are in the hot areas of the world,” Randy Voepel, who will represent suburban San Diego, told the Los Angeles Times in an interview last week.

Voepel ran unopposed for his seat on the state Assembly, and was endorsed by the state GOP and over a dozen sitting Republican lawmakers.

Voepel became known for controversial stunts and impolitic comments during his fifteen-year tenure as the mayor of Santee, a San Diego suburb.

Almost a decade ago, he told an LA Times reporter that climate change was positive because “our enemies are on the equator” and would be most aversely affected.

Voepel has also dismissively referred to Chinese nationals as “Chi-Coms,” for Chinese communists, and accused the homeless population of stealing copper wiring from local parks.