Prescott, Arizona — At the conference center in Prescott, Arizona, pamphlets, buttons, and the American flag were littered after the politician’s booth this month. However, the table of Republican parliamentary candidate Ron Watkins, who became famous in connection with QAnon conspiracy theory, was empty.
“I thought it started at 11:30,” said Watkins campaign manager Orlando Mungia. He arrived about 30 minutes after the event started and hurriedly laid out the campaign material without towing the candidates.
Watkins, a computer programmer in his thirties, faces the same reality that many other QAnon-linked candidates faced. The connection to conspiracy theory does not automatically mean that a political campaign will succeed.
More established Republican rivals Significantly soaring Mr. Watkins in District 2 of Arizona. Two other Arizona parliamentary candidates who have shown some support for QAnon Track competitors With funding Prior to the primary on August 2nd. A fourth Arizona candidate associated with QAnon has suspended his house campaign. The same trend is spreading nationwide.
Their dark outlook reflects the changing role that conspiracy theory plays in American politics. Republicans flirted with QAnon in 2020. This is because multiple Q-linked candidates sought higher positions, and Q products appeared at the then-President Donald J. Trump’s rally across the country. However, equating it with the movement has emerged as a political responsibility. During this election cycle, Democrats attacked Q-linked candidates as radicals, losing the race to all but two, with the exception of Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado’s Lauren Bobert. ..
But experts say many QAnon themes have been digging deeper into Republican mainstream politics this year, with “evil” deep-state operatives dominating the government and Mr. Trump fighting them. It also contains the false belief that it is. Knowledgeable candidates have found a way to take advantage of that excitement without explicitly mentioning the conspiracy theory.
Indeed, other campaigns just a few booths away from Prescott’s Watkins suggested that the election results were unreliable. This is the idea that QAnon helped popularize it.
“The actual iconography and branding of QAnon is really lost,” said a conspiracy theorist. author “A storm is approaching us: how QAnon became all movements, cults, and conspiracy theories... “” “”People no longer actually identify themselves as QAnon followers. “
“But QAnon’s view is very mainstream,” he added.
In the course of the campaign, Republican candidates avoid talking about the idea that the pedophile Cabal is preying on children, which is QAnon’s core belief. However, they said that the liberalsGroomChildren with progressive sex education. When criticizing Covid-19’s restrictions, many Republicans riff QAnon’s belief that a “deep state” of bureaucrats and politicians wants to rule Americans.
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But the most prominent issue with QAnon’s response is the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by Mr. Trump. The movement pushed the idea long before the vote took place, and before Mr. Trump pushed his claim to the mainstream.
This year, at least 131 candidates who announced bids to the Governor, Secretary of State, or Attorney General, or applied for candidacy, upheld false election claims. according to States United Action, a non-partisan non-profit organization focused on elections and democracy.
By comparison, so far Only 11 out of 37 parliamentary candidates According to the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America, it has a history of boosting QAnon and is moving from primary to general elections. Only one of them, JR Majewski, in District 9 of Ohio, has the opportunity to represent QAnon in Parliament. Overall, Media Matters has linked 65 current and former parliamentary candidates to QAnon so far this year. Compared to 106 During the 2020 election.
JR Majewski and Watkins did not respond to requests for comment.
Experts point to former news anchor Kali Lake, who is considered a leading candidate for the Arizona Governor’s Republican primary, as a model for Republicans skillfully navigating conspiracy theories for political gain. doing.
However, with the recent outage of the campaign, it was the fraudulent elections that drew all the attention. Hundreds of Trump supporters rushed to Tucson’s noisy country music bar. No one in the crowd wore a QAnon shirt or hat, an item often seen at Trump rallies. Women selling flags and bumper stickers outside the event also didn’t have Q products.
“Many of these people like Kali Lake don’t believe in Q or QAnon directly,” said Mike Rains, a QAnon expert who hosts “Adventures in Hellw Qrld.” Podcast Track movement. But by pushing the story of electoral fraud, Mr. Lake “gets their support without really knowing the inner workings of the movement.”
Lake was introduced at the event by former Army Captain Seth Keschel. Travel the country Push forward with uncovered claims about the 2020 elections.
“Everyone knows that Arizona didn’t go to Joe Biden,” he mistakenly said.
The crowd shouted as Lake went on stage. Soon she lied about the election. “How many people think it was a rotten, corrupt, fraudulent election?” She cheered.
Lake’s spokesman declined to comment.
According to polls, according to a 2021 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, QAnon remains popular, with approximately 41 million Americans believing in the core beliefs of conspiracy theory. But the story of electoral fraud is even more popular.
According to OH Predictive Insights, a state political research group, 27% of Arizona Republicans who support Mr. Trump believe QAnon’s theory is almost true. This is compared to 82 percent who believe the election was stolen.
Only 11% of Arizona Republicans who are more Republican than Mr. Trump believe that QAnon’s theory is nearly true, and about half believe that elections have been stolen.
Disinformation Watchdog warns that a candidate slate in support of the story of an electoral fraud in Arizona could win the three major races that dominate the election: the governor, the secretary of state, and the secretary of state. increase.
State representative and Secretary of State’s most promising candidate, Mark Finchem, also campaigned around election fraud. He attended the rally on January 6th and Said Arizona should Set aside the election results From the county it considered “I made an irreparable compromise.”
Finchem spoke at Meeting in Las Vegas It was organized by QAnon influencers, whom Watkins also spoke about last year. One of his slogans, “Protecting Children,” is reminiscent of the popular QAnon catchphrase “Save the Children,” on the signboard of the campaign at crowded intersections throughout the state.
“The broader cultural war has addressed some of the more conspiracy trends associated with QAnon,” said Jared Holt, a QAnon expert and senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “There was a merger to some extent.”
Arizona Attorney General candidate Abraham Hamadeh surged in polls after Mr. Trump offered his late support.He and other Attorney General candidates said During the May debate They would not have signed a certificate of the state’s 2020 election results.
Mr. Hamade and Mr. Finchem did not respond to the request for comment.
There was no shortage of refusals in the elections in Arizona’s Second Parliamentary District, where Watkins is conducting his long-term campaign.During ~ Awkward TV debate In April he moved away from QAnon. say it: “I wasn’t Q. I’m not.” He turned to the conspiracy theory of election fraud, Mr. Trump retweet He about the subject. But he was losing to his competitors.
“The election was stolen. We understand it, and we know it,” Walter Blackman said. Republican Said during the debate in the Arizona House of Representatives.
Watkins may have believed that the adoption of Arizona’s conspiracy theory could drive him from an online celebrity to a real-world politician, Holt said. However, no one was in agreement with QAnon, and it turned out to be difficult to stand out in races where almost everyone supported the conspiracy theory of fraudulent elections.
“Occasionally, someone on the right wing of the conspiracy brain gets a lot of attention online, and they think it means they’re popular,” Holt said. “So they try to run for office or hold a face-to-face event somewhere, and it’s just a miserable crash and burn.”
