Stewart’s management PAC donated to a GOP candidate who posted QAnon conspiracy theories on social media.

The identical day Utah Rep. Chris Stewart voted towards the primary gun management measure to move Congress in a long time, the congressman acquired a $1,000 donation from the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation’s political motion committee.

The June 24 donation was disclosed in pre-primary election monetary stories requiring candidates to report contributions made 20 days earlier than an election inside 48 hours. These filings are separate from common marketing campaign finance stories.

The bipartisan invoice that handed Congress final week enhanced background checks for gun patrons underneath the age of 21 and supplied thousands and thousands of {dollars} for states that implement so-called crimson flag gun legal guidelines that permit authorities to briefly confiscate weapons from people who find themselves deemed too harmful to own them. The regulation additionally included thousands and thousands of {dollars} in federal funds for varsity safety and psychological well being applications.

Stewart defended his “no” vote on the gun management invoice on Twitter saying the laws “unjustly jeopardizes the Second Modification rights of each law-abiding citizen.”

Stewart voted towards one other gun management measure that handed the Home on June 8.

The Utahn additionally acquired a $1,000 donation from the NRA’s PAC on Might 19, simply 5 days earlier than the college capturing in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 college students and two academics lifeless.

Stewart didn’t acknowledge the Uvalde capturing on his social media channels, however did talk about the difficulty throughout his solely pre-primary debate, saying new gun management measures wouldn’t remedy the issue.

“Is that this the final step you’re going to do? I’m pretty assured we could have one other capturing after [Uvalde], as tragic as that could be, after which what are [Democrats] going to suggest?” mentioned Stewart.

Stewart prompt one of the best ways to forestall faculty shootings was tighter safety, and signed on as a co-sponsor of Rep. Burgess Owens’ “Securing our College students Act,” which redirected unspent COVID-19 aid funds towards faculty security measures.

Stewart’s personal management political motion committee, “Freedom 21: Combating for freedom within the 21st Century,” donated $2,900 to Republican Mayra Flores, who gained a particular election for a beforehand Democratic-held congressional seat in Texas earlier this month. That donation is the utmost quantity allowed underneath federal marketing campaign finance laws.

The donation from Stewart is noteworthy as a result of Flores has promoted the QAnon conspiracy idea on her social media channels. QAnon followers imagine a cabal of Devil worshipers run a world pedophile ring and that the worshippers will finally be dropped at justice by Donald Trump.

Stewart’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.