GOP candidate no longer mentions QAnon to avoid getting banned from social media: ‘I’m not dumb’

Republican candidates running in the 2022 midterms are walking tightropes as the QAnon movement has grown in power within the GOP — despite the mysterious "Q" having not posted in a year.

On Monday, The New York Timesreported, "the QAnon movement — initially based on a pro-Trump conspiracy theory, that a group of global liberal elites run a child sex ring that Mr. Trump would stop — has continued to flourish. In some ways, it is now woven even deeper into the country’s political and social fabric than it was 12 months ago."

Even though the prophecies have not come true, the conspiracy theory maintains a tight grip on many of it's supporters.

"Followers of QAnon also regularly show up to events and successfully spread new fallacious claims. Last month, hundreds of people turned up in Dallas expecting to see John F. Kennedy Jr. — the son of the former U.S. president who died in a plane crash in 1999 — announce his intentions to be Mr. Trump’s running mate in 2024. Many QAnon followers pushed the theory that the recent Astroworld Festival in Houston, in which 10 people died and hundreds more were injured, was a front for a satanic ritual sacrifice," the newspaper reported.

READ MORE: ‘Power vacuum’ rocks QAnon cult

The watchdog group Media Matters for America reports there are 49 current or former candidates voicing support for the conspiracy theory.

"Twelve are from Florida, nine are from California, five are from Texas, three are from New York and Arizona, two each are from Nevada, New Jersey, Illinois, and Ohio, and there is one each from Maryland, Rhode Island, Oregon, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Alaska, Georgia, and Colorado," the group explained. "Forty-four are Republicans and five are independents."

The newspaper reported on Republican Omar Navarro, who is running to replace Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who is leaving Congress to run Trump's new media company. Navarro previously lost races against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and has tweeted the QAnon slogan.

"Mr. Navarro said he stopped posting about QAnon to avoid being banned from the platforms. 'I’m not dumb,' Mr. Navarro said in an interview," the newspaper reported.