On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, profiled Justine Wadsack, a 2020 candidate for District 10 of the Arizona State Senate (she was contemplating a run for Congress, but opted to just try to start her political career closer to home first) and apparently a cast member of Resident Evil 8. Wadsack is a rare member of the Log Cabin Republicans that actually was running for any office, as the group usually just tries to consider itself that the party isn’t as hostile towards LGBTQ rights as they are (Read on to find out how tolerant of LGBTQ rights she is).
Well, the media took a peek at her Twitter feed, and were treated to a lot of dedication to right-wing news outlets getting reshared, discussions of election fraud (which is still a myth), promotion of the conspiracy theory that big tech is “censoring” conservatives, demonization of Democrats and liberals, and oh yeah, a lot of interaction with Qanon-supporting accounts and posting the Qanon hashtag herself all over the place. She finally responded to a media request for comment to the Phoenix New Times, and tried playing it cool at first, "I don’t want to be a QAnon supporter, I’ve never been a QAnon supporter. But everything about politics intrigues me, all sides. Just because someone may be interested or intrigued by something doesn’t mean that we are conspiracy theorists." Asked what intrigued her about QAnon, Wadsack said, "Nothing. Just because I put one thing out there doesn’t mean that it is intriguing to me on a general level. I’m intrigued by every single political arm."
Note, that isn’t exactly a repudiation of Qanon, when you go, “I don’t support it, BUT IT IS INTRIGUING.” You can’t describe it in positive terms, pretend you like “all sides” of politics, and hope nobody thinks twice, y’know? The more press outlets started to include her in discussions about Republicans running for office in 2020 who were using an insane conspiracy theory to ride its coattails into office and it started to define her as a politician… well, it seemed to have hit a nerve. She made a last statement about it to the Arizona Capitol Times that made baseless accusations about their journalistic integrity, saying, “You are all working for the Democrats and your mission right now before the election is to try and pin every Republican in our nation on QAnon bullsh–.” District 10 of the Arizona State Senate has far more registered Democrats than Republicans, and that is likely why Justine Wadsack ended up losing her race by over 20,000 votes.
Once she lost, she had more free time and could go back to posting incoherently on Twitter, including spreading a new lie about how the Covid-19 vaccine causes Bells Palsy, post about Arizona seceding from the union, make anti-Semitic posts about George Soros controlling the media, and spending the buildup to 1/6/21 hailing all the Republicans about to challenge the electoral college results because of “widespread voter fraud”. That includes trying to spin already deranged statements by Sidney Powell into “PROOF” she actually won her own State Senate race by 15,000 votes. She then tried to act like the Republican Party and Donald Trump didn’t incite a coup attempt before moving on to spend her days flailing about while decrying “cancel culture”, warning that President Biden will be “coming for your guns”… and somehow, after redistricting, even with all that, she ran for District 17 of the Arizona State Senate in 2022 and WON. Yeah, she narrowly won office by less than 2800 votes in the general election.
So what important legislation has this kook sponsored since joining the legislature of the Grand Canyon State? SHE’S TRYING TO BAN DRAG QUEENS. Yes, she was the sponsor of SB 1698, which gave a generic description of what drag shows are, and if people have a minor witness one, they could face FIFTEEN YEARS of jail time. Even if it passed, it would not be signed by new Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs. And that has only made her more infamous, and given more pundits the ability to type, “WAD SACK IS GONNA BAN DRAG, YOU BETCHA.”
We’ll hope she gets booted from office in 2024 and can return to the crypt she sleeps in through the day.