Matthew Lusk says he is not a ‘brainwashed cult member.’ He just has some questions.
Believers in the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory are fond of telling each other to “Trust the Plan”—to remain firm in the belief that Donald Trump and the mysterious forces behind QAnon will, at any moment, defeat the deep-state operatives and Pizzagate-style pedophiles that secretly run the world.
It’s a leap of faith that binds the community together. But one QAnon follower has grown impatient. Instead of trusting the plan, he’s running for Congress.
Matthew Lusk, a Florida bookseller who launched his House campaign for Florida’s 5th congressional district last month, appears to be the first QAnon follower to run for federal office. His candidacy was first reported by Florida Politics, a state politics blog. According to FEC registrations, he is currently the only Republican in the contest to run in the general election against, in all likelihood, Rep. Al Lawson (D-FL).
Lusk told The Daily Beast that he’s not a “brainwashed cult member.” Still, he thinks the online posts that have made up QAnon since October 2017 are a “legitimate something.” He said he treats posts from “Q,” the person or group of people behind QAnon, like a news source similar to CNN or Fox News.
Q, Lusk wrote, has “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.”
Lusk, who lives in Macclenny, Florida, even lists “Q” as one of the issues on his campaign website, alongside the elimination of alimony and the federal decriminalization of cocaine.