Donald Trump congratulated a far-right candidate who has praised the QAnon conspiracy theory after she bested a five-term Republican representative in Colorado’s primary election on Tuesday.
‘Congratulations on a really great win!’ the president directed at the victor, Lauren Bobert, in a tweet late Tuesday night.
‘Thank you, Mr. President!’ Boebert responded Wednesday morning. ‘Freedom is a great motivator!’
Boebert, 33, has risen to notoriety as she defied pandemic restrictions by keeping her restaurant, Shooter Grill, open, which she only gave up after the Garfield County sheriff obtained a cease-and-desist order.
The restaurant is located in Rifle, Colorado, which has a population of less than 10,000, and the hook is that it is a pro-gun establishment – as Boebert encourages her employees to open-carry their firearms.
She is also unabashedly pro-Trump.
‘When given the choice, Americans will choose freedom & liberty every single time,’ Boebert tweeted the morning following her win.
‘The media wants us to believe that we are the minority,’ she lamented. ‘The American spirit is alive and well. The world is watching.’
Donald Trump congratulated Lauren Boebert for winning the Republican primary in Colorado’s 3rd district on Tuesday night, even though she bested the five-term incumbent he endorsed
Boebert, 33, supports the QAnon conspiracy theory that there is a ‘deep state’ out to get Trump and his supporters
She rose to notoriety after defying lockdown orders to keep her pro-Second Amendment restaurant, Shooter Grill, open during the pandemic
Staff are encouraged to open-carry their firearms at Shooters Grill
WHAT IS QANON?
Origins: Q Anon started on fringe website 4chan, where a poster calling themselves Q left messages claiming to be a senior federal official and purporting to reveal a ‘deep state’ cabal intent on bringing down Donald Trump. Q grew out of the discredited Pizzagate conspiracy that top Democrats were involved in pedophilia and cannibalism from the basement of a Washington D.C. restaurant, but quickly picked up steam with ‘Q’ leaving ‘clues’ and claims that Trump was going to bring down the deep state. Whenever the conspiracies turn out to not be true, followers rationalize that the inaccuracies are part of Q’s larger plan.
Who is Q?: There may now be multiple people posing as Q on the anonymous 4chan boards
A QAnon believer blocked the bridge near Hoover Dam with a homemade armored tank in the name of the movement, and later pleaded guilty to terrorism
Hoover Dam: In June 2019, 32-year-old Matthew Wright, a QAnon supporter, blocked the bridge near Hoover Dam in Arizona with a homemade armored vehicle in a 90-minute stand-off. He pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and has written two letters to Donald Trump from jail, which include the sign-off, which has become the QAnon motto: “For where we go one, we go all.”
Michael Flynn: Trump’s former national security adviser became a martyr figure for QAnon believers after he took a plea deal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, admitting he lied about his Russia contacts. QAnon conspiracy have spun Flynn pleading guilty into him being a persecuted victim of the deep state – and some even claim he is ‘Q.’
Many believers put three star emojis next to their Twitter handles. But the retired three-star general has denounced any connections to the group and pulled out of participating in an event after finding out it was hosted by a QAnon believer.
QAnon believers make former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn out to be a martyr after taking a plea deal with Robert Mueller
QAnon Political Candidates: Jo Rae Perkins, 64, won the Republican primary in Oregon in May to run for a Senate seat against incumbent Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley. “I stand with Q and the team,” she said when asked about her interest in the group. She insisted she goes to QAnon message boards as a “source of information” and claims media focuses too much on the group. Perkins won 49 per cent of the vote against three other Republicans.
Marjorie Taylor Greene came in first place in the Republican primary in a deep-red Georgia district, and will enter an August runoff. She has admitted to believing in several QAnon conspiracy theories.
Boebert is likely to win her race against Democratic candidate Diane Mitsch Bush, who was unsuccessful in her 2018 bid to flip the seat blue, as the Cook Partisan Voting Index shows Colorado’s 3rd District going for the Republican candidate by at least six points.
The president also retweeted an endorsement Wednesday morning of Boebert from the Christian and conservative-leaning news website NOQ Report.
‘A primary win by @laurenboebert, an unabashed conservative supporter of
@realDonaldTrump, bodes well for patriots looking for stronger leadership in Washington DC,’ NOQ Report Editor-in-Chief JD Rucker tweeted and the president reposted. ‘We were proud to endorse her before and we’re on #TeamBoebert for the general.’
Boebert’s upset primary victory Tuesday came after Trump endorsed Tipton in December.
‘Congressman @ScottRTipton is a great supporter of the #MAGA Agenda!’ the president tweeted of the mostly low-key congressman. ‘He fights for your #2A rights and the Border Wall. Scott is working hard for Colorado and has my Complete and Total Endorsement!’
Tipton conceded to Boebert in an email: ‘District Republicans have decided who they want to run against the Democrats this November.’
‘I want to congratulate Lauren Boebert and wish her and her supporters well,’ he wrote.
Boebert is also a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which alleges there is a ‘deep state’ agenda against Trump and his supporters.
‘Everything that I’ve heard of Q, I hope that this is real because it only means that America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values,’ the Republican candidate told Steel Truth, a QAnon-aligned web show.
Colorado’s 3rd congressional district encompasses a massive area of 30 counties, spanning from the western border to nearly the middle of the state. But with a total population of less than 800,000 in that area, it only makes up about 13 per cent of the electorate in the state.
Boebert also made headlines after confronting former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke during a campaign stint through Colorado.
During a town-hall meeting in Aurora, O’Roule pledged to seize assault rifles, to which Boebert responded: ‘Hell no you’re not.’
Gun rights have been at the center of the state’s political clashes for years between the more rural and urban areas as new restrictions were imposed following mass shootings.
‘I am a mother to 4 boys. My husband and I are raising them to be strong men! I refuse to send my children into a socialist nation. Their freedom IS my motivator! Threaten the liberty of Americans, and I’ll be there to hold you accountable! #USHouse #CO03 #HellNObeto,’ Boebert has pinned at the top of her Twitter page.
While many areas in Colorado are red, in particular the rural areas in the 3rd district, the state went blue in the 2016 election – with about 5 per cent more voting for Clinton than Trump.
Boebert’s primary win, however, shows the trend toward more right-leaning, conservative Republicans, rather than centrists like Tipton.
Tipton is the third Trump-endorsed Republican to lose in the last three weeks.
Tipton is the third Trump-endorsed Republican candidate to lose their primary in the last three weeks – showing a trend toward more right-leaning GOPers
Trump issued an endorsement of Tipton in December to keep his congressional seat
Trump also retweeted an endorsement of Boebert from Christian and conservative news website NOQ Report’s Editor-in-Chief JD Rucker on Wednesday
Boebart will face off with Democratic challenger Diane Mitsch Bush, who lost to Tipton in the 2018 election
Boebert argued during her primary campaign that Tipton too often voted with Democrats.
‘America is and always will be the greatest country in the world. Thank you, Colorado!’ Boebert tweeted Wednesday morning.
‘This is the honor of a lifetime,’ she continued. ‘Now, the hard work begins to take back the House in November!’
While Boebert will not flip her seat if she wins, since it was already red, Republicans are looking to win back their majority in the House of Representatives after losing it to Democrats in the 2018 midterms.
Boebert will face off against Democrat primary victor Diane Mitsch Bush, a former Colorado State House member.
Mitsch Bush lost to Tipton in the 2018 election, earning 43.6 per cent of the vote compared to the incumbent’s 51.5 per cent.