QAnon follower becomes official Republican Senate candidate in Oregon

The winner of a Republican Senate primary in Oregon is a believer in the QAnon conspiracy theory – and made her support of it a central theme in her campaign. 

The candidate, Jo Rae Perkins, is a former Republican chairwoman of Linn County, located south of Oregon’s capital, Salem. 

In a four-way race among Republican candidates, Perkins was hovering around 50 per cent, meaning she will be on the general election ballot against Democratic incumbent Sen. Jeff Merkley, who holds an advantage in the mostly-blue state, Yahoo News reported. 

Perkins celebrated in a victory speech by referring to herself as a ‘Q person’ and then repeating a slogan used by followers of the conspiracy theory: ‘Where we go one, we go all.’ 

QAnon believers think President Trump and an individual name ‘Q’ are taking on the elites and ‘deep state’ officials, who are trying to kill children. The conspiracy theory is similar to Pizzagate, which accused Hillary Clinton of running a child trafficking ring out of a pizza parlor 

A QAnon conspiracy theorist (left) and a Trump supporter (right) are among the throngs who came out to the state capitol in Salem, Oregon on May 2 to protest the state’s stay at home orders. Perkins ran on her belief in ‘Q’ as a Republican for U.S. Senate in the state 

Senate candidate Joe Rae Perkins (center) stands with fellow QAnon conspiracy theorist in February of this year. She posted this photo to her Facebook page 

Perkins made no secret of her belief in QAnon – a conspiracy theory that revolves around ‘deep state’ officials and global elites killing children, with President Trump and a high-ranking intelligence official dubbed ‘Q’ – who could be Trump himself – working to thwart the plot. 

It has similar outlines to Pizzagate, a conspiracy theory that grew in the deep reaches of the right-wing internet in 2016 that said Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton ran a sex trafficking ring in the basement of a D.C. pizza parlor. 

The bizarre theory got started using references from her campaign chairman John Podesta’s leaked emails.  

The pizza place has no basement, nor was Clinton involved in any such plot. 

But allies of Trump on the right, including ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s son, pushed it into prominence. 

A North Carolina man found it so believable that he showed up with a firearm to the restaurant, Comet Ping Pong, to stage a rescue. 

The president has retweeted ‘Q’-supporting accounts as well, but Perkins, during her Senate primary run, has taken her support to another level. 

‘It’s a very highly calculated risk that I’m taking,’ she told Right Wing Watch in January. ‘Most people play it a lot safer than I do. It’s either pure genius or pure insanity. It’s one of the two. The voters are going to have to be the ones that make that decision.’ 

Perkins speaks about ‘Q’ like he or she is a real person. 

‘Q is most likely military intelligence and they’ve been out there watching what’s been going on with our country for decades and they are partnered with President Trump to stop the corruption and to save our republic.’ 

She suggested to Right Wing Watch that ‘there’s probably a lot of us out there.’ 

‘But I just happen to be bold enough to say, “Hey, I’m following Q because I want to know, because if the Q team is real, I want to know about it,’ she said. 

She said her belief in ‘Q’ was similar to Christians who believe in Jesus Christ, in that it’s based on faith not proof.