Over the course of the last several years, a mysterious and unique political event has captured the imaginations of Americans far and wide, and it’s not over yet.
QAnon was the colloquial name for the community of conspiracy theorists who were honing in on a series of peculiar messages being posted to a number of message boards over the years. The messages, often posited in the form of a question, began to gather steam over the course of the Trump presidency and became a far-right political movement of their own in the latter stages of The Don’s first term.
Now, one of the men believed to be at the center of the controversial movement is looking to take his place in politics to the real world.
Ron Watkins, the former 8chan administrator widely rumored to have seeded the QAnon conspiracy theory, has said that he intends to run for a congressional seat in Arizona.
In a video posted on his Telegram channel on Thursday, Watkins said that he had decided to “double down with God as my compass to take this fight to the swamp of Washington DC.”
“I am here to formally announce my run for Congress in Arizona,” he said. “Under God’s authority, we will take back Congress, flip the Senate and fix the presidency.”
And, no, this was not some hyperbolic stunt of a statement.
Earlier, an email address associated with Watkins had filed a “statement of intent” with the office of the Arizona secretary of state to run for a congressional seat, Dylan Rosenblatt, a journalist for a local NPR affiliate first reported.
Watkins’ campaign could be a messy one, however, as some hardcore followers of ‘Q’ have long been suspicious about claims regarding Watkins’ involvement, often suggesting that he had attempted to ride the coattails of the phenomenon for personal gain.
