A Florida hurricane may be about to make an impact on the nation’s capital…but not the kind you’re probably thinking.
Laura Loomer, a 26-year-old conservative who is running for Congress right here in the Sunshine State, is gaining support among activists and donors who believe she is the conservative answer to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“She’s the Republican’s AOC,” longtime GOP strategist Roger Stone told The New York Post. “She’s young. She’s energetic. She’s feisty. She’s anti-establishment, and she has an enormous national following, as does AOC, which can help finance a congressional race.”
Loomer declared her candidacy in the heavily-blue 21st district in August of last year and has had stints at James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas and the Canadian far-right Rebel Media.
She is also well known for her criticism of Islam, which has resulted in bans from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, Paypal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Lyft, Uber, Uber Eats, and MGM Resorts.
Her campaign collected $204,786 in the first quarter of 2020, according to April filings with the Federal Election Commission. That brings her total to nearly $600,000, which is significantly more than her eight GOP primary rivals combined.
Home Depot billionaire Bernard Marcus ($2,800) and Eric Javits, a former US ambassador ($1,000), are among Loomer’s more than 9,000 individual donors.
Courtesy: Laura Loomer/Facebook
Karen Giorno, a 30-year veteran of GOP politics who served as President Trump’s 2016 Florida state director, is running Loomer’s campaign.
Loomer says her social-media gag order partly inspired her run.
“They silenced me and violated my civil rights,” Loomer explains. “I started thinking to myself, that what happened to me will happen to everyday Americans who don’t have my soap box.”
In addition to taking on big tech, Loomer has marketed herself as strongly pro-Israel, tough on terrorism, pro-gun and an unswerving supporter of President Trump.
If elected, Loomer says she planned to take on AOC and her Squad mates — several of whom she casually refers to as “Jihadis.”
“I am a one-woman squad,” she adds. “Republicans need more firepower. They need people who aren’t going to cower in fear of these women.”
Campaign manager Giorno explains, “The experience I had on the campaign with Donald Trump is really one of the reasons why I took a look at Laura Loomer. She reminded me a little bit of Donald Trump. She is very frenetic, in a good way, constant energy, high expectations of herself and others … she impressed me and I don’t get impressed very easily.”
Team Loomer add that they expect to blow out the crowded GOP field in the Aug. 18 primary before going into a final matchup with the Democratic incumbent — Lois Frankel, a former West Palm Beach mayor who was elected to Congress in 2013. In 2016, Frankel defeated Republican Paul Spain with 62.7% of the vote, even as Donald Trump won Florida by more than 100,000 votes.
Loomer will join Jen and Bill on The South Florida Morning Show, right here on 850 WFTL, Monday morning at 9:35 a.m.