Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has become a top target for Republican hate, spurred on by President Donald Trump's demand that she and other Democratic women of color "go back" to other countries. But Danielle Stella, a Republican planning to challenge Omar for Congress in 2020, has taken it to a whole new level.
On Tuesday, Right Wing Watch reported that Stella has been active in the "QAnon" community on Twitter, responding to their posts and using the QAnon-affiliated hashtag #WWG1WGA ("When We Go One, We Go All"). When asked, a spokesperson for Stella said that she "stands 100 percent behind the principles of patriotism, unity/inclusiveness ... and love for country that Qanon promotes."
QAnon is a conspiracy theory that states Trump is only pretending to be incompetent and dysfunctional in order to take down a global ring of child sex traffickers including all top Democratic politicians as well as celebrities and other figures of note. At one point, its believers held that former special counsel Robert Mueller was only pretending to investigate Trump to give him cover to help him do so. The theory originates from garbled, anonymous message board posts from a user calling himself "Q" and claiming to be an official with government security clearance, which believers work to interpret.
Stella's candidacy first attracted national attention this month after she sat for an interview with Fox Nation radio host Todd Starnes, and attended the alt-right "Demand Free Speech" rally protesting the de-platforming of various extreme-right internet personalities from social media sites.
