This was going to happen sooner or later so we probably should’ve just written a draft article saying something like “Jacob ‘QAnon Shaman’ Chansley, the iconic face of the January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection, on [day of week] filed the paperwork to run for Congress in Arizona’s XXX District next year, continuing the political mainstreaming of the far right terrorists who sought to destroy American democracy by disrupting the certification of Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.”
Actually that would’ve sounded too Politico-ish. Anyway 12 News reports that Chansley did indeed submit the paperwork to run for Arizona’s 8th District in 2024, a seat opening up with the retirement of Republican doomsday cult grandma Debbie Lesko. What’s actually a little surprising about the news is that, rather than enter an already crowded Republican primary field where he’d have to compete with Reptilian humanoid 2022 US Senate loser Blake Masters, Kari Lake-endorsed 2022 Arizona Attorney General loser Abe Hamadeh, Lesko-endorsed state House Speaker Ben Toma, and probably at least two or three other MAGA assholes, Chansley is running as a Libertarian.
Arizona’s 8th is so red that Dems didn’t even field candidates in the last two cycles and Lesko crushed her last general election challenger by 19 points in the 2018 Blue Wave year (definitely a big reason the GOP primary field is so packed). Which is to say maybe it could be a worthwhile investment for the DCCC provided Chansley doesn’t fatally overdose on peyote or some shit before election day. Might as well at least start thinking about recruiting a candidate and running some polls to see how many votes he could end up splitting off. There is one Shaman ballot that Dems won’t be able to count on however: Chansley himself, who is barred from voting due to his federal felony conviction for carrying a fucking spear with him into the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.