Ron Watkins

Ron Watkins is best known as the accused operator of “Q,” the anonymous forum account that sparked the QAnon conspiracy theory. After announcing his 2022 bid for a battleground congressional seat in Arizona last week, though, he’s tried to distance himself from QAnon. Watkins and his father, Jim Watkins, have been accused of using their control of the 8chan and 8kun forums to steal control of the “Q” identity and, ultimately, QAnon itself. Watkins and science fiction author Tony Teora, his “volunteer campaign coordinator,” struggled to explain why, if Watkins is not involved in QAnon, he’s among the keynote speakers at a QAnon conference called the “Patriot Double Down” in Las Vegas. Watkins, a soft-spoken former administrator of the fringe internet forum 8kun, faces near-impossible odds to win the Republican primary in Arizona’s 1st District to take on Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ), according to observers.