For years, the falsehoods of the QAnon movement lived on the fringes of the internet.

It was a collection of conspiracy theories aimed at exposing a supposed deep-state cabal of pedophiles. But in recent months, despite being baseless and untrue, the theories have made their way to mainstream social media platforms, gaining traction with some celebrities and a swath of congressional candidates.

In California, at least four Republicans candidates have expressed interest in QAnon ideas.

Three of them have been endorsed by the state party — Nikka Piterman and Alison Hayden, who are challenging Bay Area Democrats for Congress, and Erin Cruz, who is running against an incumbent Riverside Democrat. The candidates are running campaigns in strongly-held Democratic districts with incumbent opponents who have outraised them by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Hayden, the Republican candidate in the 15th Congressional District, sees Q as a natural evolution of a distrust in powerful people and institutions that has been growing for decades.

“I’m not saying I’m buying everything, I’m just saying that this is another news outlet, and it makes sense to me,” she said.

QAnon theories, spread by an anonymous internet user who claims to be a deeply entrenched D.C. bureaucrat, center on the claim that there is a powerful cabal of Democrats, celebrities and billionaires who are Satan-worshiping pedophiles involved in a global human trafficking ring. According to Q conspiracies, President Donald Trump was elected to take them down. The claims are not grounded in facts.

The theories have spread rapidly across social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube and have been tied to some violent acts. In 2019, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said the group posed a potential domestic terrorism threat.

In an interview, Hayden expressed doubts about facts related to the coronavirus pandemic, vaccines, climate change, and the September 11 terrorist attacks.

She questioned whether the coronavirus really poses a risk, whether vaccines are safe, and whether climate change is real, ideas fueled by the same distrust of authority that QAnon followers espouse.

“It comes with a wonderful hope to break out of the matrix, to save the world,” Hayden said of the QAnon movement. “This whole Q thing is really about returning the power to the people, the voice to the people. And to me that’s exciting. That’s a whole lot more exciting than all the anger and vitriol against (President Donald Trump).”

Bipartisan lawmakers this summer proposed a resolution condemning the movement. California’s leading Republican, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, said last month the QAnon movement has “no place in the GOP.”

The California GOP said in a statement that it does not agree with or believe in QAnon. It echoed the words of McCarthy and California Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove that “there is no place for QAnon in the Republican Party.”

“We are not going to validate their existence by saying anything more than this,” Samantha Henson, spokewoman for the party, said in an email.

Yet the party continues to endorse candidates open to the group’s ideas.

Q drops

Hayden said she believes there are things being purposely hidden from Americans. When asked how she knows QAnon posts, known as “Q drops,” are verifiable, Hayden said they come with “different news clips and a variety of sources.”

She’s running in the 15th Congressional District, which is located southeast of Oakland and includes much of Alameda County. The district voted about 20% more Democratic than the rest of the country in 2016, according to the Cook Political Report.

Hayden, a special education teacher, says on her website she is running to “stop an unelected elite from taking our voice and choice under a Socialist order.”

She has no fundraising or spending reports on file with the Federal Elections Commission. Her opponent, Democratic incumbent Rep. Eric Swalwell, has raised $2,152,759. Until July 2019, Swalwell was running for president, but withdrew after participating in one debate.

Child trafficking concerns

Cruz, who describes herself as “an entrepreneur and savvy businesswoman,” told The Sacramento Bee she had a researcher look into the claims around QAnon and said it is a “data source” that she’s willing to consider if it is important to the voters in District 36, which covers the desert communities of Palm Springs, Indio and Coachella.

Although the district votes about 2% more Democratic than the rest of the country, according to the Cook Political Report, Democratic incumbent Rep. Raul Ruiz has secured double-digit leads over his opponents in each reelection since 2012, when he unseated the Republican incumbent. Cruz has raised $6,452 during her campaign, according to federal filings. Ruiz, on the other hand, has raised $1,843,543.

“I think it’s important to weigh out what the concerns are by a constituent,” Cruz said of QAnon theories. “And I also don’t think it’s my place to judge what they see as legitimate.”

Cruz said some supporters have approached her asking her to look into the claims around child trafficking and the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail prior to his hearing.

To Cruz’s knowledge, the information coming from QAnon is not “100% accurate.”

“But some of it is, I think, valuable in that it touches on the concerns of the people,” she said.

‘Where we go one, we go all’

Piterman, the Republican candidate in District 13, is running against longtime incumbent Rep. Barbara Lee, who represents cities including Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro. Piterman is active on Twitter, where he has shared Q conspiracies, sometimes using the hashtag #WWG1WGA, “Where we go one, we go all,” a slogan often used by Q followers.

Piterman did not respond to phone calls and emails requesting an interview about his tweets or his beliefs. He has raised $5,634 during his campaign, according to federal filings, about half of which came out of his own pocket.

Some of his platform positions include adding a citizenship question to the census, establishing colonies on the moon and Mars, and converting the U.S. to the metric system, according to his website. Lee by comparison, has raised $1,344,188 this election cycle. The district is strongly Democratic, with a tendency to vote 40% more Democratic than the country as a whole.

‘Fringe’ ideologies?

Generally, the state party endorses most Republican candidates, but has been known to rescind its support if a candidate voices harmful ideologies.

That’s what happened this year with Ted Howze, the Republican candidate for District 10, who was dropped from the party’s endorsements after he was found to have shared hateful social media posts demeaning Muslims and mocking mass shooting survivors.

It’s unclear why Mike Cargile, who is running against Los Angeles Democrat Norma Torres in the 35th Congressional District, is not endorsed by the party. Cargile told The Sacramento Bee he doesn’t think his support for QAnon has hurt his campaign.

“There seems to be a sincere desire to shed light and expose the heinous activities going on around us at the highest levels,” Cargile said. “I’m in support of that. I have to be.”

Some say the candidates are a sign that the party is moving away from moderation and toward fringe ideologies.

Mike Madrid, a California-based Republican consultant campaigning against Trump, said the state party likely won’t condemn the Q candidates because the conspiracy theories are becoming more accepted in the Republican Party, including in California.

“The bulk of the party is now fringe,” Madrid said. “The leadership of the party would be in a very problematic position if it were to start with the pulling the endorsement of QAnon candidates, because the conspiracy theory enjoys a lot of support within the party structure.”

Steven Maviglio, a Democratic consultant in California, said the conspiracy theories don’t pose a threat to state Democrats. Rather, it’s likely Democrats could seize on such theories and use them to disparage a Republican opponent.

Until a candidate’s views on QAnon start to negatively affect the image of the party, he said, Republicans aren’t likely to condemn the movement.

“Certainly even the California Republican Party doesn’t want them as the poster children of their party,” Maviglio said. “But they have to tolerate their views to some degree because they’re the nominee.”

More than a dozen Q candidates are running for Congress across the U.S. Some have a good chance of winning, such as Majorie Taylor Greene, an open supporter of the QAnon theories, in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.

While other Republican leaders like McCarthy and Vice President Mike Pence have dismissed the QAnon movement, Trump has not. In August, the president said he didn’t know much about the theories but said its supporters “like me very much,” and “love America.” He has frequently voiced support for Q candidates, calling Greene a “future Republican star.”

The theory is certainly gaining traction in Republican circles. A recent Civiqs poll found 56% of surveyed Republicans believe QAnon theories to be mostly or partly true. Madrid said the growing support is a foreboding sign.

“It’s dangerous. This QAnon thing is dangerous,” Madrid said. “It’s far more widespread than people realize. And it is becoming an increasingly common belief system for Republicans.”