QAnon believer advances to Georgia House runoff race

A follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory on Thursday advanced to a runoff in the Republican primary race to represent a deep-red Georgia county in Congress.

Based on that result, Marjorie Taylor Greene could soon be the first member of Congress to publicly back the theory, which posits that President Trump and the military are working together to expose and arrest a shadowy cabal of global elites and Democratic establishment figures who control the government and run a global child sex trafficking ring.

Greene will face John Cowan, a physician, in the Aug. 11 runoff. Greene led the primary field with roughly 40 percent of the vote, 20 points ahead of Cowan.

The winner of that race will be a heavy favorite against Democrat Kevin Van Ausdal, given that retiring Rep. Tom Graves (R) won the district by 53 points in 2018.

Greene has not made her belief in the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory a secret. 

She said that “Q,” the mysterious figure who posts anonymous messages online that serve as the foundation for the theory, is a “patriot,” in a YouTube video from 2017.

“He is someone that very much loves his country and he’s on the same page as us and he is very pro-Trump,” she said.

“I’m very excited about that now there’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan worshipping pedophiles out and I think we have the president to do it,” she continued.

Greene is not the first candidate to win the Republican party’s nomination this cycle while espousing a belief in QAnon.

Jo Rae Perkins, who in since-deleted tweets said she stood with Q, won the party’s Oregon Senate primary.

After her campaign put out a statement distancing the candidate from the conspiracy theory, Perkins appeared on ABC News and contradicted the statement.

“My campaign is gonna kill me,” Perkins told ABC. “How do I say this? Some people think that I follow Q like I follow Jesus. Q is the information and I stand with the information resource.”

Perkins, however, faces much steeper odds than Greene in her attempt to unseat incumbent Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

Greene is controversial beyond her support of QAnon.

She posted a campaign ad last week where she threatens “antifa protesters” to “stay the hell out of northwest Georgia” with an AR-15. 

Greene is listed on Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Hatewatch” as an “an avid MAGA activist who frequently attends rallies or participates in protests that aim to vilify the federal government, American Muslims and transgender people.”

Greene could not be reached for comment. 

After the Washington Post published a story about her belief in QAnon earlier in the evening she tweeted that the “Chinese propagandists at the Washington Post are attacking me the same way they attack Donald Trump, and other conservatives,” without mentioning the conspiracy theory.

1. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 11, 2020

MARJORIE GREENE BLASTS CHINESE PROPAGANDISTS AT THE WASHINGTON POST

The Chinese propagandists at the Washington Post are attacking me the same way they attack Donald Trump, and other conservatives. #gapol @washingtonpost @ColbyItkowitz pic.twitter.com/CeRIRAgzY7

— Marjorie Taylor Greene For Congress (@mtgreenee) June 12, 2020