The fact that Donald Trump managed to get the Republican nomination is proof in and of itself that the GOP in its present form is unfit to govern. When a candidate as manifestly unqualified as Trump is somehow able to capture the nomination of a major party, it’s proof positive that said major party is fundamentally broken.
But as if we needed more evidence, it comes from the large number of confirmed QAnon supporters running for the House and Senate as Republicans. Granted, a good number of them are running in districts that would vote for a comatose Democrat. But still, when this many Republican candidates are openly embracing a comprehensively debunked conspiracy theory, one that has led to dozens of people being harassed, trolled and threatened, you have to wonder how they were vetted—or if they were vetted at all. Imagine if a large number of 9-11 truthers ran as Democrats.
The fact that there are a large number of QAnon kooks on the ballot is disturbing in and of itself. But when I drilled through Media Matters’ database of QAnon-supporting candidates, I counted no fewer than seven who appear to be people of color. Out of that total, four won their primaries while a fifth is running as a write-in.
One of them is Billy Prempeh, running in NJ-09, Bill Pascrell’s district. An Air Force veteran, he has posted a picture of himself posing with a QAnon flag on Facebook.
He has also tweeted the QAnon slogan.
He has also claimed “Q” and the “great awakening” are actually happening right now.
One of the candidates who is still running in a primary is Winnie Heartstrong in MO-01, Lacy Clay’s St. Louis-based district. You may know her as the woman who got ratioed for claiming George Floyd’s death was a false flag. But while promoting this claptrap, she used the pro-QAnon hashtag “ThankQ.”
She has also claimed that QAnon was “a perfect way to deal with a very...diffusive evil.”
This should be particularly alarming, given how people of color are disproportionately affected by false accusations of domestic violence and sexual assault. Remember, a number of people who are falsely accused don’t have the financial wherewithal to mount an adequate defense. And a good number of them are black and Latino.
It’s simply incomprehensible that a person of color could be openly supporting QAnon when it’s no secret that people of color may be in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. But then again, you're talking about people who are supporting a president who openly traffics in racism.