Laura Loomer, friend of Proud Boys founder, loses to Lois Frankel in Florida

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky

By Helen Chernikoff November 4, 2020

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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.

Helen Chernikoff is the Forward’s News Editor. She came to the Forward from The Jewish Week, where she served as the first web director and created both a blog dedicated to disability issues and a food and wine website. Before that, she covered the housing, lodging and logistics industries for Reuters, where she could sit at her desk and watch her stories move the stock market. Helen has a Master’s of Public Administration from Columbia University and a BA in History and French from Amherst College. She is also a rabbinical school dropout. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @thesimplechild.