Matthew Lusk: Meet The First QAnon Member Running For Congress As A Republican

Donald Trump’s presidency has given America many firsts. One of the things that followed less than a year after Trump became president was the formation of a new conspiracy group called QAnon in late 2017. Like many conspiracy theories, it was first propounded on the online imageboard 4Chan, a website notorious for being inhabited by fringe elements. A person or group of people under the pseudonym Q proposed that Donald Trump’s plan for America was in danger of being thwarted by the “Deep State” — a supposed nexus of politicians, high-ranking officials, and Hollywood celebrities, including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Since then, QAnon has seen a steep spike in members, who all believe that the group has access to classified material which proves umpteenth verifiably ridiculous claims, including Pizzagate and “Arkancided”— a reference to conspiracy theories that the Clintons murdered their Arkansas associates, as reported by The Daily Beast. Members of the group also believe that in the near future, Obama, Clinton, and their associates will face military tribunals. So far the general consensus has been that QAnon remains a fringe group, but that is about to change soon.

Matthew Lusk, a Florida resident not yet comfortable with making his biographic details readily available, told The Daily Beast that he is running a House campaign for Florida’s 5th congressional district, making him the first QAnon member to run for Congress. So far, he is unopposed in the Republican field, meaning he could actually contest in the general election for that seat.

Lusk said that although he is not a “brainwashed cult member,” he believed in QAnon because the person(s) behind it has a “very articulate screening of past events, a very articulate screening of present conditions, and a somewhat prophetic divination of where the political and geopolitical ball will be bouncing next.”

He even suggested the possibility that Trump himself might be Q, and when asked if he would continue to take orders from Q if he were to be elected, Lusk said that he would make up his own mind unless the conspiracy group brought “criminal leaks or seditious activity” to his attention.

It is highly unlikely that Lusk would succeed in his endeavor, considering the incumbent is Al Lawson, a Democrat who has won the last two elections with a margin of over 25 percentage points. Even so, Lusk’s nomination is evidence that QAnon — so far considered a fringe-group with little outreach — is possibly turning into something mainstream for Donald Trump, and maybe even for the Republican Party.

[The featured image is not of Matthew Lusk. It’s for representation purposes only.]