Loomer outraising Frankel in run for Congress
Far-right congressional candidate Laura Loomer is banned from social media, but she’s still been able to haul in more campaign cash than incumbent Democrat Lois Frankel.
Loomer, 27, has raised nearly $1.2 million since she launched her campaign in August 2019. That’s about $300,000 more than the $856,823 Frankel has raised.
Loomer has raked in that cash thanks in part to a national right-wing following generated through provocative stunts. Loomer once chained herself to Twitter’s New York City headquarters to protest what she considers to be social media censorship.
Despite Loomer’s fundraising success, she will have a tough time unseating Frankel in the Nov. 3 election. Hillary Clinton won the Democratic-leaning district by nearly 20 percentage points over Trump four years ago.
Though Frankel has trailed Loomer in fundraising, Frankel has more cash stockpiled and has spent less than Loomer. Frankel had nearly $1.3 million available for her re-election effort as of July 29, compared with about $237,500 available to Loomer, campaign finance records show.
Frankel, 72, said she’s been focused on the coronavirus pandemic and hasn’t been aggressively fundraising. She said she’s expecting a fight, but she’s confident she will prevail.
“We are obviously going to have to be prepared for some possible craziness,” Frankel said. “When you have someone of that ilk, anything can happen. Anything can be said. You can expect any level of lies and any level of craziness.”
Loomer said
Monday night her fundraising hauls show that she has strong grassroots support for her campaign. She said Frankel has become “arrogant and entitled” in Congress.
“She’s locked in her basement, just like Joe Biden, taking the voters for granted — just like Joe Biden. … All the energy, and all the enthusiasm in this race is behind me,” Loomer said. “We’re going to win.”
Loomer’s contributors include Alex Jones, who founded the conspiracy-peddling website InfoWars. Steven Alembik, a Boca Raton donor who stoked controversy two years ago in the race for governor, has also given to her election effort.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’d no longer accept donations from Alembik when it surfaced that Alembik had called former President Barack Obama a racial slur on Twitter.
Loomer has made her name through incendiary comments, touting herself as the “most-banned woman” on social media. She has accused Parkland students of being puppets and calls herself a “proud Islamophobe.”
Originally from Arizona, Loomer attended Barry University in Miami Shores. She worked on Project Veritas, a conservative operation using hidden cameras that aims to expose “liberal bias and corruption.” She also contributed to the website InfoWars, confronting Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch after a town hall meeting about his support for an assault weapons ban.
In voting records, Loomer lists an oceanfront condo in South Palm Beach as her address. Her campaign address is a post office box in Lake Worth Beach.
Uber and Lyft banned Loomer after she called for the creation of a ride-sharing app that doesn’t employ Muslims. Twitter kicked Loomer off its platform for anti-Muslim tweets directed at U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Somali refugee who is one of two Muslim women elected to Congress.
Trump expressed support for Loomer on Twitter after she beat five other candidates in the primary.
“Great going Laura,” Trump wrote. “You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!”
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and Trump-ally Roger Stone have endorsed Loomer.
She delivered her victory speech to cheering supporters. One woman yelled “COVID-19 is a scam” when Loomer mentioned the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are taking her on, and we are going to beat her,” Loomer told the crowd, calling Frankel “Lazy Lois.”
Frankel has been in Congress since 2013. Two years ago, she ran unopposed.