Walmart, Amazon and different company giants donated cash to the reelection marketing campaign of a Tennessee state lawmaker who had used social media to amplify and promote the QAnon conspiracy concept, based on an Related Press overview of marketing campaign finance data and the candidate’s posts.
The company assist for a QAnon-promoting politician is one other instance of how the conspiracy concept has penetrated mainstream politics, spreading past its origins on web message boards standard with right-wing extremists.
Dozens of QAnon-promoting candidates have run for federal or state places of work throughout this election cycle. Collectively, they’ve raised hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from 1000’s of donors. Individually, nonetheless, most of them have run poorly financed campaigns with little or no company or get together backing. Not like state Rep. Susan Lynn, who chairs the Tennessee Home finance committee, few are incumbents who can appeal to company PAC cash.
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Some U.S. legislative state candidates bring QAnon conspiracy theories to campaign trail
Although she repeatedly posted a widely known QAnon slogan on her Twitter and Fb accounts, Lynn advised the AP in an interview Friday that she doesn’t assist the conspiracy concept.
Walmart didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark made by e-mail and thru its web site. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to remark. A spokeswoman for one more donor to Lynn’s marketing campaign, Kentucky-based distillery firm Brown-Forman, which has a facility in Tennessee, mentioned the corporate didn’t find out about Lynn’s QAnon posts and wouldn’t have donated to her marketing campaign by way of its Jack Daniel’s PAC if it had.
“Now that our consciousness is raised, we’ll reevaluate our standards for giving to assist establish affiliations like this sooner or later,” Elizabeth Conway mentioned in an announcement.
Company PAC managers usually resolve which candidates to assist on the idea of slim, pragmatic coverage points quite than broader political considerations, mentioned Anthony Corrado, a Colby Faculty authorities professor and marketing campaign finance professional.
“In lots of cases, you don’t have any form of company board oversight or any form of accountability when it comes to overview of contributions earlier than they’re made,” Corrado mentioned. “Some companies now have adopted insurance policies in regards to the supervision of PAC contributions due to the reputational dangers concerned on this.”
At the least 81 present or former congressional candidates have supported the conspiracy concept or promoted QAnon content material, with at the least 24 qualifying for November’s normal election poll, based on the liberal watchdog Media Issues for America.
As of Friday, the candidates collectively had raised almost $5 million in contributions for this election cycle, however solely eight had raised over $100,000 individually, based on the AP’s overview of Federal Election Fee knowledge. The FEC’s on-line database doesn’t have any fundraising reviews for 30 of the candidates, the overwhelming majority of whom are operating as Republicans.
Congress is nearly sure to have at the least one QAnon-supporting member subsequent 12 months. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose marketing campaign has raised over $1 million, seemed to be coasting to victory in a deep-red congressional district in Georgia even earlier than her Democratic opponent dropped out of the race.
On the state stage, the AP and Media Issues have recognized greater than two dozen legislative candidates who’ve expressed some assist or curiosity in QAnon.
QAnon centres on the baseless perception that President Donald Trump is waging a secret marketing campaign in opposition to enemies within the “deep state” and a toddler intercourse trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. Trump has praised QAnon supporters and infrequently retweets accounts that promote the conspiracy concept.
QAnon has been linked to killings, tried kidnappings and different crimes. In Might 2019, an FBI bulletin mentioning QAnon warned that conspiracy theory-driven extremists have turn into a home terrorism risk.
Lynn mentioned her social media posts don’t point out any assist for the conspiracy concept.
“That is the US of America, and I’m completely free to tweet or retweet something I would like,” she mentioned. “I don’t perceive why that is even a difficulty. Imagine me, I’m not within the inside some QAnon motion.”
However in October 2019, Lynn retweeted posts by QAnon-promoting accounts with tens of 1000’s of followers. One of many posts she retweeted praised Trump and included the hashtag #TheGreatAwakening, a phrase generally invoked by QAnon followers.
Between Oct. 31, 2019, and Jan. 9, 2020, her marketing campaign obtained $4,750 in donations from Amazon.com Companies LLC, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee’s PAC, well being insurer Humana, the Southwest Airways Co. Freedom Fund and Walmart Inc.
“Like many different corporations, our PAC periodically contributes to elected officers in Tennessee, together with these serving in management like Rep. Lynn,” BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee spokeswoman Dalya Qualls mentioned in an announcement.
In April, Lynn up to date her Fb web page with a canopy photograph that included a flag with stars forming a “Q” above the abbreviation “WWG1WGA,” which stands for the QAnon slogan “The place we go one, we go all.” In Might and June, Lynn punctuated a number of tweets with the identical abbreviation.
And when a number one QAnon supporter nicknamed “Praying Medic” tweeted the message, “Is it time to Q the Trump rallies?” Lynn responded, “It’s time!” in a Might 31 tweet of her personal.
Lynn mentioned she considered “The place we go one, we go all” as a “very unifying slogan” and didn’t comprehend it was a QAnon motto. Nonetheless, a handful of Fb customers who replied to her up to date cowl photograph in April commented on the QAnon connection. The flag is now not her cowl photograph however may nonetheless be seen within the feed on her web page on Friday.
In July, AT&T Tennessee PAC, Cigna Company PAC and Jack Daniel’s PAC contributed a complete of $4,000 to Lynn’s marketing campaign.
The PACs linked to BlueCross BlueShield, AT&T Tennessee, Cigna, Southwest Airways and Jack Daniel’s had additionally beforehand donated to Lynn’s marketing campaign earlier than she amplified QAnon-promoting Twitter accounts final 12 months.
AP contacted the entire corporations talked about on this story. Some didn’t reply to requests for remark and others declined to remark.
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Related Press knowledge journalist Andrew Milligan in New Haven, Connecticut; and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
© 2020 The Canadian Press
