It was a fringe Republican campaign ad that could be ripe for parody on late-night television, ideal material for a skit on “Saturday Night Live” or the target of a monologue from a confused Jon Stewart. However, it was real and it’s hard to imagine how it could be satirized any further.
“In America, you can be anything you want,” Valentina Gomez, a 25-year-old Latino immigrant and real estate investor running in the GOP primary for secretary of state in Missouri, says in the video as she walks through a historic neighborhood jogs from St. Louis to the infectious beats of “The Show Goes On” by Lupe Fiasco.
“So don’t be weak and cheerful. Stay tough,” she continues, punctuating her statement with a swear word. The Soulard neighborhood where the video was filmed has a significant LGBT community.
The campaign ad, which Ms. Gomez shared on her social media accounts, then cuts from the video of Ms. Gomez – wearing running shorts and a vest that resembles body armor – to a still image of the candidate in front of a truck and wearing a hat National Rifle Association, with an American flag at his side and a gun in each hand.
The campaign ad, first published on Sunday, has drawn condemnation and criticism online. Mr. Fiasco, who condemns homophobia in the hip-hop scene, distanced himself from the video, which featured one of his hit singles, and said in a statement that he was “currently taking action.” Jason Kander, a former Democratic secretary of state in Missouri and a former Army intelligence officer, mocked Ms. Gomez in a social media post on Tuesday.
“It is so refreshing to see a female GOP candidate who has never served in the military, just like any other man, playing up veteran cosplay, stolen valor and bigotry as a substitute for strength training,” wrote Mr. Kander, who Deployed to Afghanistan in 2006, he has since struggled with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
But Ms. Gomez’s online trolling campaign, full of homophobia and attacks against transgender people, has also won her the admiration of far-right lawmakers, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, conservative online influencer, and expelled former Rep. George Santos – who is himself gay.
The jogging video is also not the first such homophobic stunt by Ms. Gomez, who appears eager to stand out as a political newcomer in a crowded Republican primary to become Missouri’s top elections official. In February, she posted a video of herself burning LGBTQ books with a homemade flamethrower. A month later, she said that countries that ban flamethrowers were also “weak and gay,” and has since repeatedly used the homophobic phrase as an insult and used it as a campaign slogan.
Compared to some of her better-known opponents, including Dean Plocher, the Missouri House speaker, Ms. Gomez has spent little on the race so far. But her social media posts – the ones on
“I tell the truth and wake up the lions to save America,” Ms. Gomez wrote on social media on Wednesday in defense of her ad. “Weakness won’t get us anywhere. I’m taking the gloves off and I’m here to protect and fight for Missouri.”
Ms. Gomez did not respond to a request for comment on social media.
Ms. Gomez’s comments are notable not only for their provocative nature, but also for being something of a non sequitur in the race she leads. A secretary of state is essentially a state’s chief bureaucrat, responsible for keeping records and overseeing the state’s elections. Ms. Gomez is a denier of the 2020 election and has said she would get rid of voting machines and deploy the National Guard — an authority that a secretary of state does not have — to secure the election.
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2024-05-15 23:53:14
www.nytimes.com
