The 31-day campaign against QAnon

[Nevilledog]

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Parlertakes🇺🇸
@parlertakes
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Feb 1, 2021
I've heard a lot of outrage regarding Marjorie Taylor Greene. One of the most common questions I see is, "How did she get elected?" Well, Kevin Van Ausdal (D) ran against her on a platform of countering her extremism with moderation. She virtually destroyed this man's life.
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Parlertakes🇺🇸
@parlertakes

The 31-day campaign against QAnon
In Georgia, what happened when a ‘nice guy’ named Kevin Van Ausdal ran for Congress against a candidate known for her support of extremist conspiracy theories.
washingtonpost.com
2:02 PM · Feb 1, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/17/kevin-van-ausdal-qanon-marjorie-greene-georgia/

There was a time when Kevin Van Ausdal had not yet been called a “loser” and “a disgrace” and hustled out of Georgia. He had not yet punched a wall, or been labeled a “communist,” or a person “who’d probably cry like a baby if you put a gun in his face.” He did not yet know who was going to be the Republican nominee for Congress in his conservative district in northwestern Georgia: the well-known local neurosurgeon, or the woman he knew vaguely as a person who had openly promoted conspiracies including something about a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

Anything still seemed possible in the spring of 2020, including the notion that he, Kevin Van Ausdal, a 35-year-old political novice who wanted to “bring civility back to Washington” might have a shot at becoming a U.S. congressman.

So one day in March, he drove his Honda to the gold-domed state capitol in Atlanta, used his IRS refund to pay the $5,220 filing fee and became the only Democrat running for a House seat in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, which Donald Trump won by 27 points in the 2016 presidential election.

He hired a local campaign manager named Vinny Olsziewski, who had handled school board races and a couple of congressionals.

He came up with a slogan — “Save the American Dream” — and posted his first campaign ad, a one-minute slide show of snapshots with voters set to colonial fife-and-drum music.

He gave one of the first public interviews he had ever given in his life, about anything, on a YouTube show called Destiny, and when the host asked, “How do you appeal to these people while still holding onto what you believe in?” Kevin answered, “It’s all about common sense and reaching across the aisle. That’s what politics is supposed to be like.”

*snip*

[crickets]

1. I think this article may be playing up Kevin Van Ausdal's naivete just a bit.

Still, though there is no fault in his intentions, he was in no shape to stand up to the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Even if his personal life had been healthier, she was a hate juggernaut that could have taken out just about anybody in the current political climate. The Democratic party is going to have to find and groom someone for that seat next time around, especially if Greene is still in it.

What a shame.