MAGA candidate burns LGBTQ+ books with flamethrower in unhinged campaign video

Valentina Gomez, a MAGA-loving fringe candidate for Missouri Secretary of State, got the internet’s attention Tuesday when she posted a video on X that shows her wielding a flamethrower to burn LGBTQ+ books.

The first-generation Latina is among four candidates on the ballot for the Republican primary in Missouri scheduled for August 6.

Related:

First they came for the LGBTQ+ books: How the Nazis started burning books 90 years ago this month

LGBTQ Nation spoke with PEN America about the parallels between what happened then and what’s happening now.

Dressed in a floral blouse, tight-fitting black tights, and desert-style military boots, the 20-something aims a flamethrower at a pile of books on a stool.

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“This is what I will do to the grooming books when I become secretary of state,” Gomez declares through a heavy Spanish accent. “These books are from a Missouri public library. They will burn.”

The effect is one part Lauren Boebert, one part Sofia Vergara as Griselda.

The caption accompanying the incendiary post reads: “When I’m Secretary of State, I will 🔥BURN🔥all books that are grooming, indoctrinating, and sexualizing our children. MAGA. America First🇺🇸”

The post is currently marked as having limited visibility on X, with a note saying it may violate the platform’s hateful conduct policy.

The office of Secretary of State in Missouri, currently occupied by the son of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, “Jay” Ashcroft, is responsible for administering several state government departments at the top of the MAGA agenda, including elections and the state library system.

In a MAGA-dressed word salad on her campaign website, Gomez spouts she will abolish voting machines, militarize elections by activating the National Guard to “secure” polling places, reject vaccine mandates, ban transgender “exposure” to children, and oppose “biological boys” in girls’ and women’s sports.

In her biography, Gomez claims she is “anchored by a combination of tangible accomplishments and intangible qualities” and is “a woman of intellect.”

She adds that she is “firmly convinced that with discipline and the valor to confront uncertainty, the realm of the possible knows no bounds.”

Whether or not Gomez understands the political and moral implications of book burning is unclear. The video could be a savvy and unsubtle reference, like Donald Trump’s use of terms including “vermin” and “poisoning the blood”, to Nazi ideology in an appeal to the most extreme of the MAGA base.

Or it is merely ignorant, performative art modeled on Kid Rock assaulting Bud Light beer, or any number of Boebert shoot ’em up performances.

Like the electorally doomed Colorado congresswoman, Gomez proudly displays an assault rifle in her campaign poster.