Missouri Candidate Who Went Viral for Homophobic 'Weak and Gay' Rhetoric Trounced in GOP Primary

Missouri MAGA candidate for state office Valentina Gomez made a campaign slogan out of the phrase "weak and gay," along with spouting other homophobic rhetoric. She lost the primary – badly.

The 25-year-old was running for Missouri Secretary of State. But her tactics proved a dismal misfire when Gomez "lost her GOP primary Tuesday, only securing seven percent of the vote," as UK newspaper the Daily Mail reported.

Gomez, the Mail said, "did not win a single county, sealing her embarrassing defeat after her loud-mouthed campaign antics."

Local news outlet KSDK reported that Missouri state Sen. Denny Hoskins won the Republican primary handily with 24% of the votes, trouncing not only Gomez but also a half-dozen other GOP candidates.

"John R. 'Jay' Ashcroft was elected to the post in 2016," KDSK noted, "but is pursuing a nomination for Missouri governor."

The Daily Mail noted that Gomez "post[ed] a video of her allegedly catching a pedophile on the night of her election" in which she showed herself standing in front of a scene in which a man appeared to be in the process of being arrested by someone dressed as a police officer. As the scene unfolded in what appeared to be the parking area in front of a hotel or motel, Gomez narrated, "One down, many more to go."

Gomez captioned the post "Pedophile catch party".

Internet searches to verify that a pedophilia suspect had indeed been arrested at the scene yielded no results.

Gomez had made a narrative about queer people being "pedophiles" and "groomers" a central part of her campaign.

"I don't care where the pedophiles are hiding," she went on to say in the video purporting to show the arrest. "Whether they are in our churches, schools or government, we're coming for you – and every single citizen across the entire country needs to step up."

Chasing criminals and making arrests are not part of the Missouri Secretary of State's job, which consists, KDSK noted, of "oversee[ing] elections in Missouri, manag[ing] business filings and keep[ing] records in the state."

Gomez was perhaps best known for a campaign stunt in which she turned a flame thrower on a stack of books she claimed were LGBTQ+ literature.

But that was just the start of her campaign's litany of slurs and crude falsehoods about LGBTQ+ Americans.

In video posted on May 29, Gomez posed in front of an American flag and declared that "The weak and gay agenda is about to be shoved down our throats for the next month," in an evident reference to June being Pride month.

She went on to talk about "the pedophiles this flag represents," in what was seemingly a reference to the Pride banner.

There is no flag for pedophiles, and none of the colors on the Pride flag represent pedophiles.

Earlier in May, Gomez posted a much-mocked video that showed her running through the quiet streets of a gay neighborhood clad in a bulletproof vest. "In America you can be anything you want," Gomez declared as she jogged, before paradoxically adding, "so don't be weak and gay."

Gomez then hurled an f-bomb, saying: "Stay fucking strong."

In a subsequent post, Gomez hurled another f-bomb at unseen (or imaginary) tormentors she claimed had disrupted what would otherwise have been a run crowded with "hundreds of patriots that wanted to join me".

Gomez sought to put a triumphant face on her crushing loss with a post-election video in which she declared, "This was the most fun I've ever had."

The defeated onetime candidate went on to repeat her checklist of anti-gay falsehoods, claiming, "I put the fear of God on these groomers, pedophiles, and corrupt politicians."

Gomez then went on to celebrate how she had "shot big, beautiful guns" and "triggered every liberal in America" with her campaign hijinks.

"Hollywood, the establishment, and the Democrats all came after me because I didn't want this gay shit being shoved down our throats," the MAGA candidate went on to add.

The voters, however, did not come out in force in support of her bid for office.