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Lauren Elena Witzke (born February 9, 1988) is an American far-right[1] political activist known for her anti-LGBT views and promotion of QAnon.[2][3][4] Witzke was the Republican nominee in the 2020 United States Senate election in Delaware, which she lost to incumbent Democrat Chris Coons. She is a former TV show host for TruNews.
Lauren Witzke | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Lauren Elena Witzke February 9, 1988 Delmar, Delaware, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Education | Delaware Technical and Community College Goldey-Beacom College (BA) |
Witzke was born on February 9, 1988, in Delmar, Delaware. She attended Goldey–Beacom College, where she earned a BA in business management.[5] At Goldey–Beacom, she played softball as a catcher and shortstop, and volleyball initially as a setter and then defensive specialist.[6][7]
2020 Senate election
On September 16, 2020, Witzke won the Republican primary for the 2020 Senate election in Delaware with 57% of the vote, defeating attorney and former Marine James DeMartino. Witzke said that her opponent was a "RINO", an acronym for 'Republican in name only'. Her candidacy was not endorsed by the Delaware state Republican Party who had instead decided to endorse DeMartino.[8] Witzke's Senate campaign was endorsed by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who had marched in the August 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.[9] Witzke accepted Fuentes' endorsement with the response of "Thank you, Nick!".[10] During the general election campaign, Witzke claimed without evidence that Hunter Biden's laptop contained illicit images of "Chris Coons' daughter in addition to seven other underaged girls". PolitiFact rated the claim to be false.[11]
In the November 2020 general election, Witzke was defeated by incumbent Senator Chris Coons 59-38%.[12]
Media work
After far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles was hospitalized with COVID-19 in late May 2021, his organization TruNews announced that Witzke would be filling in for him as co-host of the program.[13] After Wiles returned, Witzke was hired as a permanent co-host of his show. As of September 6, 2021, Witzke has been let go from TruNews.[14] In October 2021, she revealed she had contracted COVID-19 and said she experienced a loss of senses and "brain fog". She blamed COVID-19 testing done at TruNews for making her aware of her infection.[15]
Witzke has appeared on VDARE, a website that the Anti-Defamation League has called a "xenophobic website" and the Southern Poverty Law Center a website that "regularly publishes articles by prominent white nationalists, race scientists and anti-Semites".[16] Witzke tweeted out her interview with VDARE, writing, "In order to preserve America, we must first preserve American families, our values, and our culture."[17] In October 2020, Witzke defended the far-right organization the Proud Boys and said at one point that the Proud Boys exemplified "patriotic masculinity" and thanked the group for providing security at her campaign rallies.[18][19] In 2023 she said that "America needs a strong leader that would make even the most infamous of fascists blush." In the same statement, she said that "Racial integration has hurt the black and white community." and that "Blacks are 13% of the population but commit 56% of the murders.[20]
Abortion
Witzke opposes abortion and supported the overturning of the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. Upon the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020, Witzke said that "Ruth Bader Ginsberg's obsession with abortion overtly singled out blacks and minorities for extermination".[21] Witzke also attacked her Democratic opponent Chris Coons for being a "Christian-hating baby killer".[22]
Black Lives Matter
Witzke has described Black Lives Matter as "violent terrorists" who want to "stoke societal unrest, and literally already has blood on their hands" referring to the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots in which David Dorn was killed by a burglar several miles away from riots in St. Louis.[23][19]
COVID-19
Witzke has said that COVID-19 is "satanic" and that COVID-19 vaccine is a "satanic plot" to cause "mass death".[24] In 2022, she co-produced the film Died Suddenly, which promotes false claims about COVID-19 vaccines and Great Reset conspiracy theories.[25]
Immigration
Witzke has supported a complete ban on all immigration to the United States for ten years.[26][16] She has also stated that "nationalist populism is the future".[27]
LGBT people
In March 2021, Witzke responded to a tweet from Richard Grenell about a trans woman who had attended CPAC by claiming that transgender people are "mentally ill" and "demonic".[28] She also iterated her opposition to both same-sex marriage and gay conservatives being welcomed into the Republican Party.[29][30] Witzke has also said that Christians should "reclaim the rainbow" and celebrate June (LGBT pride month) as "Christianity month".[2]
Witzke said that the COVID-19 outbreak that afflicted TruNews was a "demonic attack" on the channel for having self-described "ex-gay" Milo Yiannopoulos and called him "Satan's favorite sodomite".[4]
While speaking on an online panel on the post-Trump future of the Republican Party in March 2021, Witzke attacked conservative trans woman Blaire White, saying, "The best thing you can do for us is grow out your moustache and tell people not to live like you." On the same panel, Witzke also espoused the belief that trans people are "sexual predators" and "pedophiles".[22] In this same debate, she mentions "We also have a transgender [sic] on here, you know I don't think we should be giving a platform to this kind of degeneracy which is a gateway drug to pedophilia."[31]
In May 2023, Witzke expressed support for Uganda's death penalty for homosexuality, saying, "Unlike the lawmakers in Texas, the Uganda government recognizes that if you give an inch, the LGBTQ Mafia will take a mile... they stop it before it starts."[32]
QAnon
Witzke has voiced support for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, which centers on claims that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic sexual abusers of children operating a global child sex trafficking ring conspired against former U.S. President Donald Trump during his term in office.[33][34] During Hurricane Ian, Witzke suggested that "elites" may have created the devastating hurricane as a "deep state" attempt to punish Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and particularly conservative areas of the state. On the conservative "Shots Fired" streaming broadcast, Witzke claimed that she has "no doubt" that the technology exists to control weather catastrophes.[35]
Russia
At the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference, Witzke described Russia as "a Christian nationalist nation", and said "I identify more with Putin's Christian values than I do with Joe Biden."[36][37] She stated that "Christian Nationalist countries are a threat to the global regime".[38]
September 11 attacks
Witzke believes that the 9/11 attacks were committed by Israel. [39]
Witzke was raised Methodist. She is a former drug user, and was arrested in 2017 for possession of methamphetamine and heroin, driving under the influence, and resisting arrest, after being found "unresponsive within a car parked in a busy Tennessee intersection."[40] She was later reformed through a Pentecostal faith-based recovery program for which she became program director. She is a recent Evangelical Protestant convert to Orthodox Christianity, received within the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), and was a catechumen during her Senate campaign.[41]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Lauren Witzke | 30,702 | 56.89% | |
| Republican | James DeMartino | 23,266 | 43.11% | |
| Total votes | 53,968 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Chris Coons (incumbent) | 291,804 | 59.44% | +3.61% | |
| Republican | Lauren Witzke | 186,054 | 37.90% | −4.33% | |
| Independent Party | Mark Turley | 7,833 | 1.59% | N/A | |
| Libertarian | Nadine Frost | 5,244 | 1.07% | N/A | |
| Total votes | 490,935 | 100.0% | |||
| Democratic hold | |||||
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