Far-Right GOP Candidate Wins Florida Primary, Receives Congrats From President Trump

Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist and self-described “proud Islamophobe,” won her Florida Republican primary Tuesday to compete against Democrat Rep. Lois Frankel for Florida’s 21st congressional district. The southeastern district includes Palm Beach, where President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is located.

Trump congratulated Loomer on her victory. “Great going Laura. You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!,” Trump tweeted, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Loomer, 27, has been banned from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Medium, PayPal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Uber and Lyft due to violating hate speech policies or spreading misinformation. She was kicked off Twitter, for example, after she called Rep. Ilham Omar, D-Minn., “anti-Jewish” and criticized Omar’s Islamic faith.

Loomer has reported for InfoWars, a website that frequently promotes right-wing conspiracy theories. She has also worked for the right-wing Project Veritas group.

Loomer was banned from the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2019, after she heckled a CNN reporter covering the event. In November 2018, she handcuffed herself to the front doors of Twitter’s New York headquarters, claiming that the platform was shadowbanning conservative voices.

Florida’s 21st congressional district is firmly Democratic, meaning Loomer is unlikely to defeat Frankel. The last time 72-year-old Frankel had a Republican opponent was in 2016, when she beat GOP candidate Paul Spain by 28 points, 63% to 35%.

Loomer is the latest far-right candidate to win a Republican primary this year. QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene recently won the Republican primary runoff for Georgia’s 14th congressional district and is favored to defeat Democratic candidate Kevin Van Ausdal in the fall.