There’s no guarantee any of the seven extreme candidates will end up on the ballot for GOP nominations, but their entry into the race again raises the specter of Trump-backed election myths that have put Illinois Republicans in a bind as they try to win over moderate voters.
A suburban high school staffer. A former Chicago Police sergeant. A South Side college professor.
None of them believe the 2020 election results were legitimate. Some of them seem to promote the spread of much darker conspiracy theories even more detached from reality — namely, that a global cabal of Satanic pedophiles plotted to prevent former President Donald Trump from winning a second term.
A slate of far-right conspiracy theorists have filed to run in June’s Republican primary for nominations for Illinois public offices ranging from governor to a seat in Congress, aiming to amplify baseless claims of rampant voter fraud and to “take back” the government.
Their website features a slogan and symbol linked to QAnon supporters, although one of the candidates sought to downplay the connection.
Johnson’s campaigning on the anti-election fraud platform with running mate Brett Mahlen, her lieutenant governor candidate who, according to state records, shares an Orland Park address with Maryann Mahlen. She’s running to take Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s seat.
Maryann Mahlen’s candidate biography touts her “pursuit of bringing control of the land of the United States back to We The People, by re-establishing the Constitution for the United States of America.”
Turney, who has more than a thousand YouTube followers, also wrote that all “voting machines will be disassembled, sold, donated, or destroyed.” She’s no longer on the city payroll.
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes QAnon as “the umbrella term for a sprawling spiderweb of right-wing internet conspiracy theories with antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ elements that falsely claim the world is run by a secret cabal of pedophiles who worship Satan and are plotting against President Trump.”