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QAnon conspiracy thinking edges into Olympic Peninsula politics

https://komonews.com/news/local/qanon-conspiracy-thinking-edges-into-olympic-peninsula-politics

https://archive.is/ZoTL4

PORT ANGELES, Wash. — Last year, right wing conspiracy theories from QAnon were injected into the U.S. Presidential race.

KUOW reports this year conspiratorial thinking is creeping into small town races around the country, including several on the northern Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.

A QAnon apologist named Donnie Hall recruits and trains candidates through a group he co-founded called the Independent Advisory Association.

His first candidate was hair salon owner William Armacost, who became mayor of Sequim last year and then started to publicly promote QAnon conspiracy theories to the local community.

This year, Hall is backing a slate of candidates from Port Townsend to Port Angeles.

One of them is a small business owner and licensed massage therapist named Jena Stamper who is running for Port Angeles City Council Position 3, KUOW reports.

Stamper has embraced a theory that Seattle is buying homeless people bus tickets and shipping them out to the peninsula. The theory is gaining acceptance among many local residents there.

Her opponent, attorney Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, the incumbent in this race, says there is no evidence to support that theory, which he calls a "myth."