‘I’m not conceding’: Tearful Laura Loomer blames ‘big tech’ after losing GOP congressional primary

24 August 2022

In Florida’s 11th Congressional District, Rep. Daniel Webster survived an aggressive GOP primary challenge from far-right conspiracy theorist and self-described “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer when, on Tuesday, August 23, he defeated her by about 7 percent. The ultra-MAGA Loomer, however, refused to concede, and in true MAGA fashion, she blamed her loss on “big-tech election interference.”

During a speech on Election Night, Loomer was literally in tears when she told supporters, "I'm not conceding, because I'm a winner — and the reality is our Republican Party is broken to its core. What we have done tonight has really honestly shocked the nation. We have further exposed the corruption within our own feckless, cowardly Republican Party. We are losing our country to big-tech election interference, and I am pleading with the Republican Party to please start taking this issue seriously, because the American people deserve representation."

Loomer slammed Webster as a “RINO Republican” and "do-nothing Daniel Webster” during her speech. RINO is short for “Republican in Name Only,” a popular insult among MAGA Republicans.

But the 73-year-old Webster is hardly the liberal or progressive that Loomer makes him out to be. A major supporter of the Christian Right and far-right Christian fundamentalists, Webster is vehemently opposed to abortion and holds very patriarchal views.

After serving in the Florida State Legislature from 1980-2008, Webster ran for a U.S. House seat in 2010 and defeated liberal firebrand and incumbent Democratic then-Rep. Alan Grayson by about 18 percent. Grayson’s loss was a major disappointment for liberals and progressives, especially in light of how socially conservative Webster was in his views.

Grayson attacked him as “Taliban Dan” during the 2010 midterms, which found Republicans enjoying a massive red wave in the U.S. House of Representatives. But when Grayson discussed his loss on MSNBC that year, he was totally matter-of-fact about it and noted that he had been a liberal seeking reelection in a very conservative district.

A scathing anti-Webster attack ad that Grayson ran in 2010 pointed out just how far to the right Webster was on social issues, noting that he opposed abortion even for rape victims and that he believed wives needed to submit to their husbands — anti-feminist positions that, Grayson argued in his ad, Webster shared with the Taliban in Afghanistan. But while Grayson, in 2010, attacked Webster for being on the extreme right, Loomer, in 2022, slammed him for being too moderate and not far enough to the right.

This wasn’t the first time that the 29-year-old Loomer, who has described herself as “pro-White nationalism,” lost a U.S. House race. In 2020, she successfully won the GOP nomination in Florida’s 21st Congressional District — which is much more Democrat-friendly than Webster’s district — but lost to incumbent Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel by 20 percent. Frankel had no problem painting Loomer as an extremist; during a 2017 interview, Loomer had said she supported a “White ethno-state.”

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