Conservative Activist Laura Loomer Outraises Democrat Incumbent For Third Straight Quarter In Hot Congressional Race
Once considered a fringe outlier, activist Laura Loomer is emerging as a serious candidate for a congressional seat in Florida. Loomer is challenging democrat incumbent Lois Frankel. The district was created in 1993 and was held by republicans until redistricting a few years ago. It runs from Palm Beach down to Delray Beach on the eastern side of the state.
Loomer has outraised Frankel for the third straight quarterly cycle, according to FEC records.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel is once again trailing Republican challenger Laura Loomer in quarterly fundraising as Frankel seeks to defend her seat in Florida’s 21st Congressional District.
It’s the third straight quarter Loomer has topped Frankel. But the incumbent still holds a large cash-on-hand lead. Frankel has more than $1.25 million on hand going forward, while Loomer holds about one tenth of that, with $126,000.
Still, Loomer was able to top Frankel in money raised during the first quarter of 2020. Loomer added nearly $205,000, according to the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Frankel, meanwhile, added just over $83,000.
But Loomer also burned through all but $11,000 during the quarter. Frankel spent just over $18,000, for a net of about $65,000. That allowed her to expand the cash-on-hand advantage over Loomer despite bringing in less money overall.
Frankel also continues to hold a lead in overall fundraising this cycle — though that’s mostly due to having a head start over Loomer. Frankel has brought in nearly $690,000 in total to Loomer’s, $561,000. Loomer only joined the contest last summer, however.
Her closest republican competitor has only raised about $80,000.
However the party affiliations don’t bode well for Loomer, as the seat is so reliable democrat that only once since redistricting has a democrat incumbent event faced a republican challenger in a general election, and that was in 2016, when Frankel won by 27%.
No polling data seems to be made public yet.
Some, including Roger Stone, are calling her the republican version of AOC; A young female with a lot to say, who doesn’t fit in with the establishment, and who came from nowhere to make yuge splashes, as the New York Post adds:
Karen Giorno, a 30-year veteran of GOP politics who served as Donald Trump’s 2016 Florida state director, is running Loomer’s campaign. The district is home to the president’s Mar-a-Lago club and now his official residence.
Critics have frequently labeled Loomer’s commentary as racist and Islamophobic. After news emerged that Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in a terrorist attack in New York City which killed eight people, was an Uber Driver, Loomer called for the creation of ride-share app that would not employ Muslims. She told The Post the remark was intended to “raise awareness” about vetting drivers and that she was “not sorry” about it.
Loomer said her social-media gag order was partly what inspired her run.
“They silenced me and violated my civil rights,” Loomer told The Post. “I started thinking to myself, that what happened to me will happen to everyday Americans who don’t have my soap box.”
The primary isn’t until August 18th, but that doesn’t stop wacked out leftist sites from flipping out about her, calling her every name in the book. The Daily Beast referred to her as a “Trumpy bigot” back in February:
In the past, extremist and racist candidates like Loomer were rejected by the Republican Party. In the age of Trump, not anymore.
Before we talk how Trump, Rep. Jim Jordan, GOP Florida officials, and even a Trump Fox News ally are promoting Loomer, let me give you a Loomer primer. First, she’s not the least bit bashful about her efforts to stoke hate against Muslims.
In 2017, she bragged on Twitter about being a “#ProudIslamophobe,” as she called Muslims “savages,” calling for a ban on allowing Muslims into America “EVER AGAIN.” She has called Islam a “cancer,” and worse, she wrote that there’s “no such thing as a moderate Muslim. They’re ALL the same.” Loomer dangerously wants you to believe that a Muslim American like myself is no different than a person in ISIS.
Loomer, who once worked for the right-wing group Project Veritas, seems to especially despise immigrant Muslims, tweeting in 2017, “Someone needs to create a non-Islamic version of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver.” That resulted in her being banned from Uber and Lyft for violating its community standards, which prompted Loomer to tweet, “Uber will literally hire an Islamic terrorist, but they will ban a conservative journalist for addressing legitimate safety concerns.”
In 2019, Loomer took to Instagram, where she made a video attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in vile terms, blaming all Muslims including Omar for 9/11, and adding, “Muslims should not even be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country.”
Loomer’s history of spewing hate online resulted in her being banned in the past year from just about every social media platform out there. In November 2018 Twitter banned Loomer for violating its rules against hateful conduct. In May 2019 Loomer was banned by both Facebook and Instagram, along with others who had used these platforms to promote haters, such as Louis Farrakhan for repeated anti-Semitic statements, and Paul Nehlen, the Wisconsin businessman who ran for Congress and continually spewed white supremacist garbage.
I think you get the idea. Loomer is someone who, in the times before Trump, would’ve been marginalized to the fringes of society along with other bigots and racists. But these aren’t normal times. This is the time of Trump, and Loomer is Trumpism personified. She fits perfectly in today’s party of Trump which is why in August 2019 she announced her run for Congress as a Republican to take on Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel in the Palm Beach-area district. Loomer describes Frankel as “a staunch obstructionist and critic of President Donald J. Trump.”
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