Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist running for Congress, said Tuesday she has stopped collecting signatures to support her candidacy because of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Ms. Loomer will continue to run as a Republican to represent Florida’s 21st Congressional District, but she will pay a fee to appear on the primary ballot rather than continuing to collect signatures and risk contributing to the spread of the potentially deadly coronavirus epidemic sweeping the country, she announced.
In a statement, Ms. Loomer cited guidance from the Trump administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as causing her campaign to adapt accordingly.
“While voter engagement is a passion for me and our campaign volunteers, following the White House and CDC’s recommendations I felt it best to limit the community’s exposure to the Coronavirus in every way that I could. We’re not placing a single volunteer’s health or community wellness ahead of our campaign goals,” Ms. Loomer said in a statement.
Ms. Loomer’s supporters will also temporarily stop knocking on the doors of voters and instead shift to reaching out by phone and online, her campaign announced in a press release.
Florida state law allows congressional candidates to appear on the ballot by either collecting signatures from at least 1% of the total number of registered voters in the district they seek to represent or paying a filing fee equivalent to 4% of the annual salary they would receive if elected. In deciding to take the latter route, Ms. Loomer is expected to pay a $10,440 fee rather than obtaining the autographs of 4,935 potential constituents.
“Our volunteers and staff are healthy, and we plan to stay that way,” said Karen Giorno, a general consultant to Ms. Loomer’s congressional campaign. “Our tactics are changing out of necessity and will not slow down the growth and enthusiasm of this winning campaign,” she said in a statement.
Ms. Loomer is vying to unseat incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel, Florida Democrat, to represent a district that contains parts of Palm Beach County including the city of West Palm Beach.
Florida is one of dozens of states in the U.S. to have reported confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus strain, COVID-19, since it was discovered in December in Wuhan, China.
The Florida Department of Health has documented at least 28 positive cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday this week, including two patients who died after contracting the virus.
Internationally, the World Health Organization has confirmed more than 113,000 cases of COVID-19 across 110 countries, including more than 3,100 deaths attributed to the outbreak.
Ms. Loomer, 26, is a political activist and self-described investigative journalist who gained notoriety before announcing her candidacy as a result of being banned from several major online platforms. She was booted from both Uber and Lyft in 2017 after complaining about Muslims driving for either ride-hailing service, and she punted from Twitter in late 2018 following a tweet criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress. More recently, she was banned from Facebook in 2019 after the social network found her in violations of its policy prohibiting “dangerous individuals and organizations.”
Despite lacking official accounts on leading social media services, Ms. Loomer has nonetheless managed to mount a relatively successful congressional campaign since declaring her candidacy in August: Laura Loomer for Congress has received campaign contributions in excess of $356,000 as of Dec. 31, according to public Federal Election Commission data.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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