Laura Loomer, friend of Proud Boys founder, loses to Lois Frankel in Florida
![Laura Loomer](https://images.forwardcdn.com/image/970x/center/images/cropped/laura-loomer-1505249491.jpg)
Laura Loomer
Veteran incumbent Lois Frankel smashed far-right Jewish activist Laura Loomer’s bid for her Congressional seat in Florida’s 21st district.
Lois Frankel, 72, is a Democrat who has served in Congress for eight years after having also served as a two-term mayor of West Palm Beach, after 14 years in the Florida state legislature. Earlier in her career, she was a public defender.
Laura Loomer, 27, became Frankel’s Republican challenger after winning a primary race in late August. She was promptly congratulated by President Trump, who dispatched his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to campaign with her. Also lending support to Loomer’s campaign: Trump confidant Roger Stone, Fox News Host Jeanine Pirro, far-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos, and Gavin McInnes, the founder of the Proud Boys, an extremist group that got the controversial shout-out from President Trump at the first Presidential debate Sept. 29.
Frankel has largely ignored Loomer’s rhetoric, focusing on issues she sees as most urgent for her constituents: COVID-19, healthcare, and school reopenings. She seems deeply ambivalent as to whether Loomer, who regularly calls her “Lazy Lois” and “a self-hating Jew,” even merits a response.
Ilene Prusher contributed reporting.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
![](https://forward.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image.png?_t=1722445328)
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO