An evangelical pastor hoping to unseat Oklahoma Senator James Lankford by embracing QAnon has, ironically, been accused of devil worship and child sex trafficking by QAnon after he posted a photograph of his daughter wearing red shoes—an unequivocal sign that one is a Satan-worshipping pedophile to the fringe conspiracy group. Who would have thought that a group that finds Satanists and child traffickers behind every pizza oven would turn on one of their own over some inconsequential detail!
Not Jackson Lahmeyer, who has spent months on the conspiracy circuit with Michael Flynn and Lin Wood, and who has had to deny via social media that he is involved in “Child Sex Trafficking [sic], pedophilia, or devil worship” as well as allegations that he is a “creation worshipper” and a “new world order globalist.” (I am not delusional enough to be familiar with the latter terms but they sure sound like a lot of words that would certainly titillate people looking to Da Vinci Code every political photograph they see in order to bolster their own sense of self-importance.) However, perhaps those validation seekers wouldn’t be quite so rabid if power-hungry philistines like Flynn and Wood weren’t holding conferences to get them all riled up with religious leaders like Lahmeyer attempting to win elections by going along with it. Per Vice:
“[Lahmneyer] has sought and secured the endorsement of Flynn and Wood, both of whom are held in high esteem by QAnon followers. Bennett’s endorsement is seen as another signal that embracing conspiracy theories is no longer fatal to a successful run for Congress. Lahmeyer has appeared on stage at a number of the conspiracy conferences organized by Tulsa businessman Clay Clark in recent months, and is scheduled to appear at several more in the coming months.”
But even in his denial of Satanist child sex trafficking and defense of his toddler’s footwear, Lahmneyer is careful to blame just one conspiracy theorist and not the lot of them, whose votes he presumably still needs. “It was a harmless post but there is an individual out there who has been spreading things about me that are not true,” Lahmeyer wrote on Facebook.
Lahmeyer entered the race after his opponent refused to repeat lies about fraud in the 2020 elections, which lost him the support of the Oklahoma Republican Party Chair, who pivoted support to Lahmeyer. Thus far, Lahmeyer appears to be running on a platform that consists mostly of pretending to believe in stolen elections, anti-trans bigotry, anti-vax rhetoric, and nodding while people make shit up on conference stages. But perhaps in order to compromise with his voter base, he should add mandatory beige footwear for his and all other children to the ticket as well. After all, if you’re not going to agree with these shrieking Facebook people every time they see Satan behind a tree election fraud in a functioning Democracy, then what use are you?