Republican candidate for Senate in Oregon Jo Rae Perkins told TPM that she’s “happy” to have another candidate in the mix who reads QAnon posts, after Marjorie Greene became the presumptive next congresswoman in Georgia’s 14th district.
Both Greene and Perkins have expressed support of QAnon, a conspiracy theory that centers on a supposed secret battle between President Donald Trump and a “deep state” working to destabilize him.
“Most of the people who read Q Posts, are people who want to make sure they are fully informed,” Perkins told TPM. “Many do their own research on what is posted. They don’t just accept as fact what is shared. We have learned to either use or improve our critical thinking skills.”
“So, yes, I am happy to see another candidate that reads the Q posts as part of her pool of research and information source to have won the Georgia primary,” she added.
Perkins also tweeted her congratulations.
#WeAreTheNewsNow
Way to Go @mtgreenee https://t.co/Sdzp9SdH9Q— Jo Rae Perkins (@PerkinsForUSSen) June 11, 2020
Perkins’ social media is littered with references to QAnon, and she held a sticker bearing the acronym for the group’s logo (“where we go one we go all”) after winning the Republican primary to challenge Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) this fall.
After attracting a flurry of attention after her primary win, she walked back her support, saying that her words were being “spun” by the “fake news machine.” Soon after though, she admitted that her campaign advisers had talked her into disavowing her beliefs and that she wasn’t happy about it.
Regardless, as a Republican competing statewide in very blue Oregon, her chances to actually win the seat are slim.
Greene, on the other hand, came out the strong leader in the first round of the Republican primary. If she wins the runoff in August, a likely scenario as her next closest competitor was more than 20 points behind her, she’ll almost certainly win the seat due to the strong Republican lean in the district in which she’s running. That would make her the first open QAnon supporter in Congress.
She has expressed interest in some of the more extreme beliefs under the umbrella of the conspiracy theory.
“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 said in a 2017 video.
It was a reference to a coming final judgement-like event, sometimes called the “Storm” in QAnon-speak, during which prominent Democrats and figures in popular culture will be tried and executed, or possibly sent to Guantanamo Bay. She also echoes the frequent and baseless accusation of Trump’s political enemies being pedophiles and Satan worshippers.
