Do you remember Laura Loomer, a 28 year old social media psychopath, fascist provocateur, proud anti-Muslim bigot and conspiracy theorist? She isn't only banned by Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and basically all mainstream social media, she is the only fascist in history to be banned by CPAC, the annual American fascist conclave! Point: this is a dangerous insane person, extremely mentally ill. She managed to swindle right-wing contributors out of $2,286,934.81 in her ill-fated run against 72 year old Florida Congresswoman Lois Frankel. Trump endorsed Loomer in that contest, but it's a district where a Trump endorsement is a kiss of death. He only managed to win 41% of the vote there and Loomer couldn't even get to 40%, losing to Frankel 237,925 to 157,612. Loomer spent $2,240,689 to Frankel's $1,309,786. (On top of that, Loomer was the biggest recipient of largesse from the neo-fascist American Liberty Fund-- $514,896-- which also spent money supporting a whole pack of other losing Nazi-oriented, anti-American candidates, one of whom actually won, Lauren Boebert.)
Anyway, so now you remember her? A couple of weeks ago she switched congressional districts and is now gunning for far right Republican Congressman Daniel Webster in Florida's 3rd reddest district, FL-11 (PVI is R+18 and Trump won 65.4% of the vote). Webster, the same age as Frankel, usually wins with around two-thirds of the vote. This is the district with The Villages. The voters are fairly evenly distributed between 5 very red counties-- in order of number of voters in the district-- Hernando, Sumter, Lake, Marion and Citrus.
So far-- as of June 30, Loomer has raised $100,942 in her primary against Webster-- although when she raised it, it was all against Frankel again. Webster could actually lose because he's noticeably senile and dysfunctional, because she cuts directly into his born-again base (even though she’s Jewish) and because he has never bothered to move into the district. Besides, McCarthy hates him because he challenged him for party leadership in an ugly campaign and McCarthy won’t use GOP money to bail him out. Pretty funny, right?
Except for one thing: will she even be able to run? After poo-poo-ing the COVID pandemic and refusing to get vaccinated or wear a mask-- even saying last December that "I hope I get COVID just so I can prove to people I've had bouts of food poisoning that are more serious and life-threatening than a hyped-up virus"-- she now has what she describes as a terrible case of COVID. Madeleine Marr, reporting for the Miami Herald yesterday, wrote that on Loomer's Telegram channel she begged her followers to "Just pray for me, please. Can’t even begin to explain how brutal the body aches and nausea that come with COVID are. I am in so much pain." She's treating it with the antibiotic azithromyacin, anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and OrthoMune vitamin supplement and is trying to get a doctor to give her ivermectin.
"Unlike many who have fallen ill with COVID," wrote Marr, "Loomer said she does not regret refusing the vaccine and will not be getting one down the road. She followed that up by parroting more widely discredited misinformation about the vaccine being a tracking mechanism for the government."
Before she switched districts, she was endorsed by far right extremists Marjorie Traitor Greene (Q-GA) and Paul Gosar (insurrectionist-AZ, Loomer's home state). Notorious Republican Party strategist Rick Wilson told the Jewish Insider a couple of weeks ago that "Loomer may be vile, personally repugnant, wildly immoral and crazier than a latrine rat but Republican primary elections now reward rather than punish that kind of behavior."