Tech

QAnon candidates don’t thrive, but have some of their ideas


PRESCOTT, Ariz. – Leaflets, buttons, and American flags cluttered booth after booth for political candidates at a convention center in Prescott, Ariz., this month. However, the table reserved for Ron Watkins, a Republican candidate for Congress who is famous for his ties to the QAnon conspiracy theory, was empty.

“I think it started at 11:30,” said Orlando Munguia, Mr. Watkins’ campaign manager, who arrived about 30 minutes after the event started and rushed out campaign materials with no response. accompanying candidate.

Mr. Watkins, a computer programmer in his 30s, is facing the same reality faced by many other QAnon-affiliated candidates: Having a connection to conspiracy theory doesn’t automatically translate to a successful political campaign.

Older Republican opponents have strongly offended Mr. Watkins of Arizona’s Second District. Two other congressional candidates in Arizona have also shown some degree of support for QAnon follow their competitors Fundraising before the preliminary August 2nd. A fourth Arizona candidate with ties to QAnon has suspended his House campaign. A similar trend is taking place across the country.

Their bleak outlook reflects the changing role of conspiracy theories in American politics. Republicans courted QAnon in 2020, as several Q-linked candidates seeking higher office and Q goods showed up at rallies for then-President Donald J. Trump across the country. country. However, identification with the movement emerged as a political responsibility. As they have done this election cycle, the Democrats have attacked Q-linked candidates as extremists, and all but two – Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado – lost their race.

Many of QAnon’s topics have penetrated deeper into Republican mainstream politics this year, experts say, including the mistaken belief that “evil” deep-state agents control the government. and that Mr. Trump is waging a war against them. Savvy candidates have gone to great lengths to exploit that excitement – all without explicitly mentioning conspiracy theories.

Indeed, just a few blocks from Mr. Watkins’ booth in Prescott, other campaigns have shown that election results cannot be trusted, an idea that QAnon has helped to popularize.

Mike Rothschild, a conspiracy theorist and author of “The Storm Comes to Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy of Everything”. “”People don’t really identify themselves as QAnon followers anymore.”

“But the view of QAnon is very universal,” he added.

On the campaign trail, Republican candidates avoided talking about the idea that a group of pedophiles were hunting children, a core tenet of QAnon. But they accept the false claim that libertarians”groomChildren receive progressive sex education. In criticizing Covid-19 restrictions, many Republicans oppose QAnon’s belief that a “deep state” of officials and politicians wants to control Americans.

However, the most notable point that made QAnon protest was the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Mr. Trump. The movement promoted that idea long before any votes were cast, and before Mr. Trump made the claim mainstream.

At least 131 candidates who have published bids or applied to run for governor, secretary of state or attorney general this year have supported false election claims, based on United United Action, a non-partisan nonprofit focused on elections and democracy.

For comparison, so far only 11 out of 37 congressional candidates with some history promoting QAnon has progressed from primaries to general elections, according to Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group. Only one of them, JR Majewski of Ohio’s 9th District, had the opportunity to add QAnon’s representation in Congress. Overall, Media Matters has linked 65 current and former congressional candidates to QAnon so far this year, compared to 106 in the 2020 election.

JR Majewski and Mr. Watkins did not respond to requests for comment.

Experts point to Kari Lake, a former news anchor who was widely seen as the frontrunner in the Republican primary for Arizona governor, as a role model for slick Republicans. navigating conspiracy theories for political gain.

But at a recent campaign stop, voter fraud got all the attention. Hundreds of Trump supporters crowded into a noisy country music bar in Tucson. No one in the crowd appeared to be wearing a QAnon shirt or hat, items commonly seen at Trump rallies. A woman selling flags and bumper stickers outside the event also did not have a Q line.

“A lot of people like Kari Lake don’t trust Q or QAnon directly,” said Mike Rains, a QAnon expert and host of “Adventures in HellwQrld.” a podcast motion tracking. But by bringing up the election fraud story, Ms. Lake “gave their support without having to really know the inner workings of the movement.”

Ms. Lake was introduced at the event by Seth Keshel, a former army captain who country tour promoting debunked claims about the 2020 election.

“Everybody knows that Arizona hasn’t reached out to Joe Biden,” he said mockingly before calling out “citizen soldiers” – a term reminiscent of “digital soldier”- to protect the voting boxes.

The crowd cheered as Ms. Lake stepped onto the stage. Soon after, she repeated the lies about the election. “How many of you think it was a corrupt, corrupt, rigged election?” she asked to cheer.

A spokeswoman for Ms. Lake declined to comment.

Poll shows QAnon still popular, with about 41 million Americans believes in the core tenets of conspiracy theories, according to a 2021 poll from the Institute for the Study of Public Religion. But stories of voter fraud are even more common.

Among Arizona Republicans who support Trump, 27% believe QAnon’s theories are mostly correct, according to OH Prediction Insights, a political research group in the state. That compares with 82% of those who believe the election was stolen.

Among Arizonan Republicans who are more loyal to the Republican Party than Mr. Trump, only 11% believe QAnon’s theory is mostly correct, and about half believe the election was stolen.

Information watchdogs warn that a group of candidates supporting Arizona election fraud stories could win three key races that control elections: governor, secretary of state and attorney general.

Mark Finchem, a state representative and candidate for secretary of state, also focused his campaign on electoral fraud. He attended the January 6 rally and was speak Arizona should take the election results from the counties it deems “Unnecessarily harmed”.

Mr. Finchem spoke at a convention in Las Vegas last year hosted by a QAnon influencer, where Mr. Watkins also gave a speech. On his campaign sign at busy intersections across the state, one of his slogans reads “Protect Our Children” evoking a popular QAnon catchphrase. , “Save the children”.

Jared Holt, a QAnon expert and senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said: “The broader culture war has created some of the more conspiratorial tendencies towards QAnon. “To some extent, there was a consolidation.”

Abraham Hamadeh, a candidate for Arizona attorney general, surged in the polls after Mr. Trump gave his late endorsement. He and other candidates for the position of attorney general said in a debate in May that they will not sign the state 2020 election results.

Mr Hamadeh and Mr Finchem did not respond to requests for comment.

There is no shortage of electors in the race for Arizona’s Second Congressional District, where Mr. Watkins is running his long campaign. In one awkward debate on television in April, he separated himself from QAnon, speech: “I’m not Q, and neither am I.” He turned to the electoral fraud conspiracy theory, noting that Mr Trump retweeted him on this subject. But he was beaten by his competitors.

“The election was stolen. We get it and we know it,” said Walt Blackman, a Republican Party member in the Arizona House of Representatives, said during the debate.

Mr. Watkins may believe that Arizona’s embrace of conspiracy theories could take him from online celebrity to real-world politician, Mr. Holt said. But it proved difficult to stand out in a race where no one was affiliated with QAnon and nearly everyone supported the electoral fraud conspiracy theory.

“Sometimes some people on the right-brained right get attention online and they think that means they’re famous,” Mr. Holt said. “So they try to run for office or have a live event somewhere, and it’s just a tragic crash and burn.”





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