Following Media Matters’ reporting, CAGOP removes endorsement of QAnon candidate who used n-word in racist rant

Several other QAnon-supporting congressional candidates are still receiving support from significant Republican organizations

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

An image of Mike Cargile

From Mike Cargile's campaign Facebook page. 

The California Republican Party has dropped its endorsement of congressional candidate and writer Mike Cargile. Media Matters had recently reported that Cargile is a QAnon supporter who wrote an anti-Black rant on Facebook in which he used the n-word. He has also repeatedly shared bigoted memes on the platform.

Cargile is running for Congress in California’s 35th Congressional District against incumbent Democratic Rep. Norma Torres. The California Republican Party had backed his congressional campaign and stated on Facebook in January that it is “proud to endorse” him. 

Media Matters previously documented that Cargile is a supporter of QAnon, a violence-linked conspiracy theory that is based on cryptic posts to online message boards from an anonymous user known as “Q" that have spread rampantly on social media and among fringe right-wing media. QAnon conspiracy theorists essentially believe that President Donald Trump is secretly working to take down the purported “deep state,” a supposed cabal of high-ranking officials who they claim are operating pedophile rings.

Cargile has also claimed that the coronavirus is a “scamdemic” and “NOTHING compared to the diseases and plagues headed this way via the rats and the homeless”; and has praised the lie-filled Plandemic video as “EXACTLY why I'm in this race!”  

On Tuesday, Media Matters reported that Cargile wrote a racist rant on Facebook in which he used the n-word and told Black people to “quit blaming white folks for your problems. Take your black ass out there and show them kids there's a better way than husslin' on the street.” He also shared bigoted memes, including ones that suggested Muslim members of Congress are working with terrorists; stated that “2 illegal aliens having an anchor baby does not produce an American”; and suggested that LGBTQ people are leading to the end of days.

After that article, the California Republican Party quietly removed its endorsement of Cargile from its website. 

Several other congressional candidates who are QAnon supporters are also still receiving backing from significant Republican organizations and GOP figures as they’ve advanced toward the general election. 

Buzz Patterson is on the November ballot in California’s 7th Congressional District. The California GOP has endorsed his campaign. 

Nikka Piterman is on the November ballot in California’s 13th Congressional District. The California GOP has endorsed his campaign. 

Jo Rae Perkins is the Republican Senate nominee in Oregon. The Oregonian reported on May 27 that her support for QAnon has not cost her any endorsements and her campaign manager “said the Oregon Republican Party was ‘on-board.’” (The Oregon GOP lists Perkins on its website of Republican 2020 candidates.) 

Marjorie Taylor Greene is headed to an August run-off for the Republican nomination in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. Her website states that she’s endorsed by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the House Freedom Fund, and Turning Point USA founder and conservative pundit Charlie Kirk, among others. (Some Republicans have distanced themselves from Greene after initially saying nothing about her support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.)