New reporting from the Star Tribune has revealed the extent to which the QAnon conspiracy theory has permeated the Republican Party of Minnesota. At least six Minnesota Republican Party-endorsed candidates have professed belief in the deranged conspiracy cult.
The Star Tribune: QAnon on the ballot: Six GOP-endorsed Minnesota candidates back conspiracy theory
By Stephen Montemayor
At least a half-dozen Minnesota Republicans running for state legislative seats in November have promoted the sprawling QAnon conspiracy theory that includes false claims that Satanists and pedophiles run the government and that COVID-19 is part of a plot to steal the election.
Once dismissed as a fringe movement, QAnon is quickly seeping into mainstream Republican politics as scores of GOP candidates across the country express support for its ideas. Among them are six candidates endorsed by the Minnesota Republican Party for state House and Senate seats from the Iron Range to the metro suburbs.
In some cases, Minnesota candidates have used official social media pages for their campaigns to post slogans in support of QAnon, which the FBI has warned is a conspiracy theory that could inspire acts of domestic terrorism or violence. Some posts include references to a “Great Awakening” or “The Storm,” a prophesied reckoning in which elected officials, journalists and other members of “the Deep State” are rounded up for imprisonment or execution.
State Democratic officials have expressed alarm at the prospect that any of the Republicans linked to QAnon could be elected. “It’s really dangerous and I would say that any elected official, candidate or political party who embraces these is really, in my opinion, acting against our democratic values and frankly trading in information that could be deadly in some cases,” said DFL Chairman Ken Martin.
But Julie Dupré, a Republican challenging DFL Sen. Melisa Franzen in the southwest metro suburbs, calls QAnon “a really great information source” and “one of many that I use.”
Dupré and five other GOP legislative candidates have expressed various degrees of support for QAnon online, at times enthusiastically encouraging others to join them in the movement.