The New York Times alleges that Ron Watkins began posting as Q in 2018—Watkins has denied these claims.

Ron Watkins has stopped campaigning for an Arizona congressional seat. Watkins decided to end his campaign on Tuesday because he was a Republican.

The conspiracy theory is still a part of Republican politics, but it seems to have lost its hold on democracy. Following his defeat in the Arizona congressional primary, Ron Watkins has decided to close his campaign. A shadowy group of Satanists within the government are accused of sexually abusing children, according to messages left on online forums. Watkins has said before that he is not the man behind Q.

Watkins told the New York Times that he wasn't Q. The outlet claims that Watkins started writing as Q in their analysis.

During the Republican primary election for Arizona's U.S. House District 2, Watkins received a mere 3.8% of the vote, which was less than half of the total votes cast. Watkins had failed to raise much money for his campaign, so he decided to use the instant messaging platform Telegram to campaign.

The campaign faced a bumpy road in its brief life as Watkins' team failed to reveal where a whopping $20,626.15 of his campaign finances came from as written in a March letter from the Federal Election Commission. Despite running out of money, the Watkins campaign was still active this week.