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Loomer beat five other candidates to win his party’s nomination, winning about 43% of the vote Wednesday morning, according to unofficial results from the Florida Election Division.
But Loomer’s chances in November against outgoing Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel are less certain in a district that leans heavily on Democrats. His victory is emblematic of how the GOP did not rule out but welcome candidates who have a history of inflammatory rhetoric or who support conspiracy theories.
Loomer has been removed from several social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for her anti-Muslim comments.
Before being banned from Twitter, Loomer wrote in 2017 that “I never want another Muslim to enter this country” and used hashtags such as #ProudIslamophobe, according to The Arizona Republic.
Following a terrorist attack in New York in 2017, she was banned from Uber and Lyft after making comments discouraging the employment of Muslims, NBC News reported at the time.
In videos posted to her campaign website, Loomer, who is Jewish, also targeted U.S. officials Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who are Muslim, accusing them of anti-Semitism.
She pushed for conspiracy theories, like accusing student survivors of the 2018 Parkland shooting of being fed into lines, and that same year saying she “didn’t buy” that homemade bombs were sent. to CNN and prominent Democrats. After an investigation, Cesar Sayoc apologized and pleaded guilty to sending 16 improved explosive devices. He was sentenced to 20 years and no one was physically injured by his devices.
Loomer calls himself an investigative journalist and once worked for the controversial website, Project Veritas, whose deceptive investigative tactics have drawn criticism.
Although he did not support Loomer, the president retweeted in support of his campaign and congratulated her on Tuesday after learning of her victory.
“Alright Laura. You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!” Asset
tweeted Tuesday evening.
His kudos to Loomer come after his praise last week for Georgia Republican candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, who locked down her party’s nomination for a US House race and looks set to win a seat in Congress in a solidly GOP district. Greene also has a history of inflammatory rhetoric, including Islamophobic comments, and has made positive statements about QAnon’s baseless conspiracy theory.
Asked about Loomer and Greene’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and whether these views belong to Congress, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Wednesday: “The president regularly congratulates those who have officially secured the Republican nomination to Congress. He does it as a question. of course. “
“He didn’t go into the statements of these two women in particular. I don’t know if he even saw this, but he supports the Muslim community. He supports the faith community more broadly in this country,” McEnany said said during a White House press briefing.
The Trumps voted in the Florida congressional primaries on Tuesday after designating someone to pick up and drop their ballots in Palm Beach, an official familiar with the matter told CNN. But the White House declined to say who it voted for.
Last year, the president and the first lady changed their permanent residence to the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
Some of Trump’s main allies, including Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida and Roger Stone, have endorsed Loomer.
She had over $ 1 million in campaign contributions, with Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones among her donors.
Frankel won Tuesday’s Democratic primary with 86 percent of the vote Wednesday morning, according to the Florida Elections Division. She has represented the district since 2017, after beating her Republican challenger by nearly 28 percentage points in the 2016 election. She ran unopposed midway through 2018.
Trump won Florida in the 2016 presidential election, but the 21st Congressional District went to Hillary Clinton by a margin of almost 20 points.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
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