A socialist candidate and social media star vying to represent Washington state’s 10th congressional district raised tens of thousands of dollars before it was revealed he didn’t file the paperwork to run. Days before the registration deadline, Joshua Collins mysteriously deleted his social media accounts.
Collins, 26, of Tacoma, Washington, belongs to the Industrial Workers of the World, a revolutionary Marxist and anarchist workers’ union. He is also an active advocate for antifa—a far-left extremist movement known for political violence. And he wants to represent Washington's 10th.
Collins had raised over $200,000 as of late March for his campaign, but his motive was quickly called into question when people noticed he was not registered to run for office.
It was only after Collins was prompted to get the paperwork filled out that he decided to do so, finishing it just two days before the May 15 deadline.
A short time later, Collins disappeared from social media, leaving his donors, fans, and supporters hanging without knowing what was going on. It appears that Collins did not feel it necessary to give a justification for why he was bailing on his support base, despite the massive fundraising effort.
The deadline to file paperwork to run for office was May 15. But Collins' social media accounts were dead as of May 13. Given the nature of elections, in both the era of social media and the time of coronavirus, social media accounts is a must for any campaign.
The accounts were brought back online, but a reason for closing them was not released. What instead happened was Collins had been in communication with his campaign staffer, Daniel "Danni" Shull, who took to Twitter, putting out a thread trying to justify why Collins had randomly vanished in the middle of his campaign.
The excuse Shull—also an active antifa advocate—released was that Collins did not have enough time to "unplug & sleep." Shull, an "adult content creator," has communist symbols on her profile and a request for financial donations via Venmo.
Some of Collins’ supporters have pointed out that he committed a party bait-and-switch. He registered as a candidate with the Essential Workers’ party, a new political organization, but raised money saying he was running on the Democrat ticket. As late as April 2020, campaign staffer Pierce"> Alonzo said Collins was running as a Democrat.
What’s more is that Collins has a past of being destructive and shamelessly vindictive on social media. After Texas senator Ted Cruz condemned the antifa beating of The Post Millennial editor-at-large Andy Ngo last year, Collins responded sarcastically: "Whatever you do, do not go and buy a large milkshake and pour it on the most reprehensible person in the Senate. We need civility. And that means not humiliating fascists, even though it would be really satisfying for millions of people to see."
Collin's did not stop there. On Twitter, he has displayed hatred for anyone who is not part of his antifa efforts. He has even gone so far to say that the only reason "Nazis" haven’t taken over the country is because antifa has been there to step in.
Questions have been raised about what Collins has done with the campaign money. People are suspicious that he is running a vanity campaign, or perhaps an outright fraud. In favour of the vanity suspicion, some of his previous media profiles have highlighted his ambition to be the youngest congressional representative in the US.
For someone who wants to be a lawmaker, he has little concern for the rule of law.
Collins' has outspent all his political rivals but questions have arisen over potential financial waste and misuse. For example, Collins spent campaign dollars on arbitrary expenditures, such as on Amazon Prime, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Additionally, Collins' campaign manager, Zelzah Baez, is also his wife. Collins has since returned to Twitter.
The Post Millennial reached out to Collins for comment, but did not receive a reply before time of publication.
With files from Andy Ngo.
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